Keemax,Your posts are wonderful and truly inspiring.I am an Advertiser by profession but I am also very business inclined.
Your posts are just inspiring me to do more and be focused while at it.
I stumbled on your post yesterday and I couldn't stop reading. Thank you very much....

Keemax, God bless for your effort. I ll be grateful if you can add me to your mailing list

This is a great post!
We Need resource people like this Dude who is focused and provide his readers with exactly what they needed!
I really enjoy every bit of your post sir!

love this so much,it is very inspiring.HOLLA at the person who started this.

@keemax...am on the verge of starting a business but the problem is that am kind of scared

hienyimba: @keemax...am on the verge of starting a business but the problem is that am kind of scared

@hienyimba
It is natural to feel scared. I have talked about fear and some ways to overcome it. Go through the post preceeding the business plan module.
Albeit, it is important you do your assignment well to increase the odds of success. A business plan is quite important - it helps you to know and understand your business; your market; financial implication - what it takes to start and continue running it, before profit comes and how to prepare yourself for the task ahead.
I also encourage people to start small and grow. I encourage people to start business using the wonder of our time - the internet, with as low as N5000, you can have a powerful presence on the web.

From my own experience, when I wrote a small plan, I felt in charge and off I went to start, despite the fear of unknown that beseiged me.
Hope it helps.

The fear of the unknown is what holds a lot of potential enterprenures. They end up building other peoples dreams.
U Just have to overcome inertia!!

Very Educative thread Keemax. Keep it coming.
Please kindly add me on your mailing list. I need those Ebooks too pls.arcmky@yahoo.com.

Hi, your thread is wonderful! I admire your consistency! Am an upcoming shirt designer(prints/concepts) and i need advice on how to succeed in this business and also where to showcase my works each time they are ready... Thanks! Hi, your thread is wonderful! I admire your consistency! Am an upcoming shirt designer(prints/concepts) and i need advice on how to succeed in this business and also where to showcase my works each time they are ready... Thanks!

Hello friends. As much as questions needs to be answered, I think we must not lose focus of the objective of the thread - which is to help aspiring entreprenurs start right. For this reason, i wish to inform you - the movers and the shakers of this thread that I will write on the topic of the thread thrice in a week and use two days to answer questions of benefit.
Or do you have a better opinion? I would appreciate it.

In continuation of the market analysis;
5. Who are my customers?
6. How will they know about my product/service? Word of mouth, flyers, referrals, article writing, promotion, video marketing e.t.c. Use a minimum of 3 media.

Answer these questions; to be continued tomorrow.
Thanks.

I appreciate every single poat of yours. Just stumbled on this thread and cldnt help but go thro it from start to finish, i am delvin into small biz support. I've been gatherin resources in the past few weeks and wont mind materials from you. kurosiki4show@yahoo.com

Hello friends.

7. How often will I communicate through the chosen media? Aggressive communication or marketing is the rule of business at inception. It will interest you to know that you require 3 months - day by day for any significant online notice.
Depending on the medium - plan for a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly communication with your customers.
Remember, out of sight is out of mind.
Thanks.


7. What will my message to be to my customers?

Good day mr keemax,you being a wonderful teacher with this ur tread,may God bless u and enrich ur knowledge too,I realy want to start an online service too. Please kindly add me on your
mailing list. And I need those Ebooks
too to improve me too pls. segunontop@gmail.com.
(Quote) (Report) (Like)
Re: How To Turn Yourself Into A
Multimillion Naira Brand.
by Ugosample(m): 1:33pm On
Aug 21
Hi, your thread is wonderful! I
admire your consistency!

@ thedon18, I say amen and thanks to you. I am preparing some stuff that could be of help to aspiring online or offline entrepreneurs.

Let us revisit our last question; what will be my message be to my customers?
Irrespective of the medium, you should be able to write or talk about your product/service in an exciting and engaging way that will capture the heart and cash of your customers. This is what is called an elevator pitch.
To learn more about this, visit www.elevatorpitchessentials.com

Tomorrow would be for your questions.
Thanks.

Hello friends. I hope we got some benefits from the mentioned site yesterday.

Since we don't have questions, let me leave you to sink in the week's information.

Have a nice weekend. Thanks.

great thread...... would like to get more materials... diamondboy70@yahoo.com God Bless!

Good morning friends. I hope you had a splendid weekend.

Going further under market analysis;
8. Are there others into my type of business?
9. What can I do to differentiate my business from others or make me have a market advantage over them? An online search of 'unique selling position' tips will give you an insight to answering this question.

Till 'morow, thanks.

Good afternoon friends.
Apart from the unique selling point giving you a market edge, it also provides you with the window of opportunity to enter the market.
A good example that comes to mind is glo. To have a market edge and for a share of the market from MTN, it used the billing per second window of opportunity, which the former said was impossible at that time.

Something must seperate you from your competitors. People should hear of your business service/product and say 'wow'. E.g If you run a creche, why not take in elderly siblings of the babies with you after school; clean them up, feed and help with their school assignment - of course at a price. Most mothers would think less of the cost because her worry of safety, school assignment, engaging the children positively among others is settled.
Most mothers can even do off with children-minder at home; if the above opportunity exist for her children while she is at work.

Search out your business 'wow' factor now; that is your window of opportunity.

Thanks.

Dear friends, thanks for being there as usual.
Be reminded that we are learning how to put up a simple business plan to start-up a micro or one-man business peculiar to us in Nigeria.
I expect we look up some online or offline resources to compliment the information you receive here and to help you answer the posted questions well.

Today, we will look through the last set of questions under market analysis.
10. Is your product/service idea associated with season or a cycle? This will help you know your dull and boom sales period. Clothes sell more during festive periods; stationeries boom when student resume back to school; drinks sell more during dry season - do you notice that the big names in bottled or canned drinks embark on promotions during rainy seasons.

11.Where will my customers meet me? In a rented shop, online or my home kitchen table office? Or will I have to meet them?

Thanks.

Good afternoon friends.
From the market analysis, we can conveniently build a simple marketing plan; which is how we intend to market our service/product.
My own example; I have two books I authoured on Amazon.com - my customers are people who need multi-income SME business ideas for Africa, while the second book focused on those who intend to create a business product/service idea based on their God-given abilities.

Since Amazon is an online platform; the books are in e-format, millions of people are on the web and the cost is low. I chose to market to my customers online.

What medium did I use online to get across and how often? Join me again tomorrow. Thanks.

Good morning friends.

In continuation of yesterday post - I used 3 media to market the books online, they are:
1. Article writing
I chose this option because writing seems easy for me. I registered with a minimum of five leading online article directory.
I hear someone say; the leading directories are more foreign inclined, yes. I need African Diasporans and non-Africans who owns an Amazon kindle reader to read my book, hence the choice of this route.
In my bio-resource, a link is referenced to the books. I try to write 2 articles/week.
2. Forums where my customers gather, everyday or every other day.
3. PPC (paid per click) - I lost some money through online theft using this method. This setback is one of the anticipated problem using this method, however it is making me look through other available options.

Following the simple market analysis questions, you can set up your own marketing plan. The questions are also applicable if you have physical products.
Be reminded also of your competitors, look out for them constantly, don't copy them, check for threats they might pose to your business and opportunties they may create for you.

For this weekend, update your knowledge in business planning and other aspect of business via the resource contained in ''SME ToolKit Nigeria''. A google search of the keyword in inverted comma will take you to the site.

Join me on Monday and let's talk business financial analysis.

Hello friends. I hope your weekend was great .

Straight to today's topic; why the need for financial analysis in the business plan?
It helps you to:
1. Ascertain the cost implication of starting and running a business.
2. Price your service/product.
3. Financial data projections/
forecast. e.g. profit/loss, sales.
4. Put in place records to monitor the business.

External funding will require information on how to utilize and make returns on investor's fund.

Join me tomorrow to begin the analysis. Sharpen your arithmetics and business study skill for the analysis.
Thanks.

Dear friends sorry for being offline yesterday. I had an urgent issue that took the better part of my time.

In ascertaining the cost of starting and running a business; what questions must be answered?
1. How much is it going to cost to start?
2. How much will the business need to continue to run despite not making profit yet?
3. At what point will I breakeven(expenditure=income)?
4. How and who will finance the business?

To determine the costs above, an understanding of fixed and variable costs is of neccessity.
Let us look into it tomorrow. Thanks.

keemax:

@hienyimba
It is natural to feel scared. I have talked about fear and some ways to overcome it. Go through the post preceeding the business plan module.
Albeit, it is important you do your assignment well to increase the odds of success. A business plan is quite important - it helps you to know and understand your business; your market; financial implication - what it takes to start and continue running it, before profit comes and how to prepare yourself for the task ahead.
I also encourage people to start small and grow. I encourage people to start business using the wonder of our time - the internet, with as low as N5000, you can have a powerful presence on the web.


From my own experience, when I wrote a small plan, I felt in charge and off I went to start, despite the fear of unknown that beseiged me.
Hope it helps.

Pls, I need some lectures on this internet business idea. Am very much interested but sot of dont know how to start. Meanwhile, many thanks for the knowledge U have oferred so far. They are very informative and educating. Thanks a lot.
I would need ur guide on how to go about this iternet business pls.