₦airaland Forum

For those who run a small business without CAC registration like market traders, artisans, food vendors, how do you access business loans? Do you use LAPO, cooperatives, ajo, or something else? What's the biggest frustration with the process?

Has anyone here ever been rejected for a loan from a commercial bank for their small business? What reason did they give you?

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA ALONE CAN KILL YOUR BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Your Instagram/Facebook followers might like your posts, but are they actually buying?

The mistake most Nigerian businesses make is that they rely only on social media to grow, hoping likes and comments will turn into sales, while about 70% of interested customers leave without buying.

The truth is that social media can get attention, BUT IT DOESN’T BUILD TRUST. Customers scroll past posts or worry about scams. Every day you rely solely on social media, YOU ARE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE.

So what do most Nigerian businesses miss?

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Good day, I am Gbenga Opeyemi, a website and software developer.

I help Nigerian businesses build online presence, gain credibility, and save time by developing personalized, optimized websites that actually convert visitors into paying customers.

ALSO THANK YOU to EVERYONE WHO REACHED OUT TO ME AFTER MY LAST POST:
“IF YOUR BUSINESS WEBSITE IS NOT BRINGING NEW CUSTOMERS, THEN YOU ARE MAKING THESE MISTAKES.”

You can check that out: https://www.nairaland.com/8523021/business-website-not-bringing-new
LET'S MOVE ON
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Here is what most Nigerian businesses miss:

1. GOOD WEBSITES BUY YOU TRUST, SOCIAL MEDIA DOESN’T

Every serious Nigerian business is on social media. And that is great because Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp help you get quick attention.

But there is a problem, scammers are also there.

Customers don’t want to get duped, so they look for authenticity.

Question to you “WHAT DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED TO STEP UP AND STAND OUT?”

And that comes from owning a website.

A website tells customers, “I AM SERIOUS, I AM REAL, YOU CAN TRUST ME.”

And when new customers trust you, your sales increase.


2. SOCIAL MEDIA IS RIGID, WEBSITES ARE FLEXIBLE

Social media limits what your business can do, and this means that it might not work for all businesses if you depend on it alone.
But a website can be customized to suit your business needs.

For example, Glovo and Jumia cannot take orders on Facebook or WhatsApp, so they created a web application that could handle orders.

THINK ABOUT THIS:

You are a car dealer who posts available cars on Facebook and Instagram, customers forget which cars are available because your posts get buried, and SOME LEAVE, but SOME STILL REACH OUT TO YOU.

But with a website, you can show prospective customers available cars with pictures, specs, and price, and you could even have an application for customers to schedule a test drive. Can social media offer this? No, what they do is to push people to your website to complete the deal.

OR

You are a fashion designer with 50 styles, and you are tired of sending price lists in DMs or flooding your WhatsApp Business catalog.

With a website, you can have a product catalog with prices, sizes, and a “BOOK NOW” button.


3. WEBSITE GIVES YOU TOTAL CONTROL OVER YOUR BUSINESS, WHILE SOCIAL MEDIA DOESN’T:

You might say, “But my business thrives on social media”. But you might fail to realize that building your business on social media is like building your house on rented land.

• Your social media account can be suspended or hacked.
• Government might restrict access to social media (remember the Twitter ban in Nigeria)
• Social media algorithm changes can affect your business's visibility.

But your website allows you to own your data, your customer list, and your brand presence. Nobody can take it from you.


4. EVEN SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS OWN WEBSITES:
Have you even noticed that most of your favorite influencers have their portfolio website, despite their huge following and success on social media?

WHY?

Because promoters and brands take them more seriously when they have a proper website.

If influencers do this, why shouldn’t your business? I REST MY CASE


CONCLUSION

Don’t get me wrong, I do not say that you don’t need social media. But let your social media marketing complement your website (the final destination for closing deals/sales).

Want to know the exact kind of website your business needs?

Send me a DM, and I will review your business and suggest the perfect solution free of charge for the first 5 business owners who message me.

WhatsApp/Call: 09057339147

Website: https://gbenga.koyeb.app/

Gbenga Opeyemi.

A functional website could be a small, mid, or large web application - so there is no one-size-fits-all cost.

So from your question, a functional website with:

1. A clean, mobile-friendly design
2. Payment gateway integration (Paystack, Flutterwave, or Interswitch)
3. An admin dashboard where you can manage content, orders, products, or services yourself

This will typically cost you #150k - #500k, depending on the complexity, such as the number of pages, type of business, and additional features like automation, analytics, etc.

If you want, I can give you a free consultation to:

1. Understand your exact business needs
2. Suggest the right features
3. Give you a precise budget breakdown

You can send me a DM - 09057339147.

IF YOUR BUSINESS WEBSITE IS NOT BRINGING NEW CUSTOMERS, THEN YOU ARE MAKING THESE MISTAKES.

Do you have a website, and you are not getting new customers or orders or quotes, whatsoever that can make you money, then this post is for you.

I wrote a post about the importance of having a business website, if your business don't have a website,you can check that out here. https://www.nairaland.com/8519064/why-business-needs-website-even

What if you have a business website, but nothing changed, no calls, no inquiries. Then the problem could be:

1. YOUR WEBSITE NOT ON GOOGLE:

If your website is not on Google, new customers can't find you, no one crams www.business_name.com.ng anymore.

If your website is not on Google, you can get it indexed on Google and set up the right SEO structure so new customers can find you easily.

Bonus: To check how your website is doing in terms of SEO, you can use https://www.seobility.net/en/seocheck/

2. YOUR WEBSITE IS DESIGNED POORLY:

Do your website look like one created using 2010 WordPress template, or just text and images flying around, no alignment, just chaos?

Or it doesn't show properly on mobile phone?

If yes, that's a problem. You are giving your visitors a hard time navigating through your website. So they leave.

To solve this, you need to redesign your website to make it look modern and user-friendly, and you will need a web designer for that.

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You have your website on Google, it has a good design, but I don't get the calls, I don't get the inquiries. So what's the problem?


3. SLOW LOADING:

Website visitors are impatient. If your site takes too long to load, they will close it so far they have other alternatives.

To solve this, optimize your website resources like images or choose a better hosting platform to speed up loading time.


4.NO SSL CERTIFICATE:

Go to your website, now check if it has http or https.

If it has https://, congratulations!
But http:// - that mean your website does not have a SSL certificate.

Not having an SSL certificate means that some browsers will flag your site as not secure and direct users away from it and impacts how search engines like Google rank your site.

If you don't have SSL certificate, speak with your web agency, or domain provider or contact a web developer.


5. YOUR WEBSITE HAS NO USEFUL CONTENT:

Most business websites have just Homepage, About page and Contact page.

If your business have the same, that is not enough! I do advise my clients against it, especially when you have competitions on the web space.

You need to provide value even without selling your product and one way to do that is with BLOG.

Let use an example:
Ade just came to Lagos as a JJC and he needs to get an apartment. Then he went online and Googles "how to get an apartment in Lagos".
And a real estate website has a blog post on the topic that gives him clear guidelines on how to go about it without straight forward advertising to him.
And then he explore other blog posts and saw some other helpful articles. Ade will begin to trust the real estate agency and the possibility of patronizing the business is high.

Why? Because they provide useful content and they will convert more visitors into paying customers than one which just have a homepage, contact page and about page.

So, integrate blogs into your website, create content, have newsletters. It might not just be only blog, even YouTube videos, or TikTok shorts as far as you are referring them to your website. But blogs still do magic.


If your website have any of these problems, send me a DM and I will help you review your business website for free and give you suggestions on how to optimize it.

www./2349057339147
WhatsApp/Call: 09057339147
Portfolio: https://gbenga.koyeb.app/

Gbenga Opeyemi.

“WEBSITES ARE FOR BIG BUSINESS, SOCIAL MEDIA IS OKAY FOR ME", a person told me this. If you think THIS IS TRUE, this post is for you.
Social media is important, but everyone uses it. So the question is, how do you want to STAND OUT?

The truth is, a website is NOT for big business. A website is what MAKES a business look BIG. And in today's world, looking big is how you attract customers who pay well.

I am Gbenga Opeyemi, a website and software developer. I help Nigerian businesses like yours build online presence and credibility, save time by developing personalized and optimized websites.

1. WEBSITE BUILDS CREDIBILITY AND TRUST
Let's say you need a photographer for your owambe party. You had two photographers recommended to you by your close friends (word of mouth marketing).

Photographer A has a website where you can view all his past work, prices, and reviews.

Photographer B keeps sending blurry pictures to your WhatsApp.

Even if the WhatsApp guy is cheaper, who will you go for?
I bet you will pick Photographer A because he looks serious and professional.

A website gives a business respect just as a car does to an individual. No be fake life oh, na packaging!

2. WEBSITES ATTRACT HIGH-VALUE CUSTOMERS.

No more “How much?” “Less am for me!”.

Even from social media leads, in your DM, you get customers who want to price your product like we do with aboki yams nowadays.

But having a website helps you to attract high-value customers, some of them which like pricing, but when they see the packaging and get more information about the quality of your product, they give in.

Just like buying a power bank on Jumia for ₦25k, and after you got it, your friend says she bought hers for ₦18k from “Omo Ibo” but you won’t be worried because you trust Jumia, and you know you got quality.

Your website is your own Jumia. It builds that trust so you can charge what you're worth.

3. YOUR WEBSITE CAN DO MORE THAN JUST ADVERTISE. AUTOMATE YOUR BUSINESS.

With your website, you can also have software for the automation of something that takes up your time. This automation can help you:

✅Keep employee records in one place, on your admin dashboard (no more “where is this file?”)
✅Update prices automatically instead of doing manual edits on Excel or in your jotter.
✅Collect payments and confirm them without calling the bank, using payment integration to confirm your order
✅Manage your customer’s order
✅Store the contact list of your customers

In this case, your website is now a POWERHOUSE

4. NO MORE UNNECESSARY CALLS.

A good website answers 90% of your customers’ questions before they call you.

So the few calls you get are ready-to-buy customers. Not “how much?” and “where is your shop?”

The only calls you’ll get will be: “I saw your website, I’m ready to book.”

This means less stress and more closed deals.


A website is not for big companies anymore, it is how serious Nigerian small businesses look professional, save time, and attract customers who pay well.

What do you think?
Do you agree that having a website makes a business look more professional?

Ready to build one or have a question?
Drop a comment
or 📞 Call/WhatsApp: 09057339147
Portfolio: https://gbenga.koyeb.app