You may have heard about the impending internet boom coming to Africa and especially to Nigeria. You could also be excited about the eCommerce growth metrics, and eager to tap into the rewards that they promise. Before you hop off excited and end up disappointed, you should ask yourself, will eCommerce be right for me, should I be opening an internet store? Here are five signs to indicate that you shouldn’t be doing eCommerce, these signs in fact apply to all businesses in the 21st century.

1. You need money Fast: As mentioned above, most people are going into ecommerce simply because of the money. This is not a bad reason of course, and in fact you should look forward to it, but if you need money, and you need it fast then you’re making the wrong choice. It takes ecommerce stores an average of 3 - 5 years to begin to see any profit, that is assuming they don’t fail. Therefore if you’re going in, be ready to sit it out. You should be in it for the long haul.

2. You need a guarantee: When is an entrepreneur no longer an entrepreneur? When they stop taking risks. Creative enterprises are by definition uncertain, which means if you need a guarantee that you won’t fail, that you won’t be wasting your resources, then don’t go into it. This is doubly so for internet businesses, because you not only have to compete with African giants like Jumia and Konga, you also have to face down the likes of Amazon, ebay and many other smaller ecommerce stores all over the internet and even traditional brick and mortar stores. If you don’t enjoy taking risks and immersing yourself in journeying through the uncertain, my advice, do not engage.

3. You’re not willing to take a step back: While the point on risk taking can cover this, it’s important that I point it out as a stand alone. Stepping back here refers to two things:
1. Foregoing your current comfort, which means sacrificing your all for this thing. It’s something you must choose to be either all in or not in at all. You must live for it, because there will be setbacks and disappointments and failures even you cannot believe.
2. Always having your eye on the big picture. Its easy to get lost in petty details but this could be especially disastrous to an internet entrepreneur, who must compete on many fronts. You must always have a birds eye view of the terrain, so you can instantly adapt, and make strategic decisions to help you maximise the impact of your limited resources. You must always be a step ahead, looking to the aftermath. This includes but is not limited to being up to date with technology and your competitors.

4. You’re not tech savvy: If you find everyday technology a bit too much to handle, then electronic commerce is definitely not your thing. Its easy to get lost in the never ending arrays of buttons, changing interfaces, codes, daily upgrades and the knowledge that’ll drive and maintain your site. Don’t even think about outsourcing it without getting to learn the basics. Your lack of knowledge on everything ecommerce will be a major disadvantage, and will keep incurring added costs. It doesn’t mean you should learn to code and all that stuff, but you should be tech savvy at least. This is something a mind open to learning can easily fix. What is a server?

5. You don’t have an inventory: If ecommerce had a ten commandment, then “Thou shalt ensure thy inventory” would be the second law. While this should be obvious to everyone, some still prefer to have an online store, then travel back and forth between stores to satisfy customer demands. This strategy either translates into higher prices or losses incurred by the store owner. Higher prices on the internet is a grave sin, breaking the first law “Thou shalt not have higher prices than your competition”. Unless you are providing an obvious value, you should maintain price levels equal or even less than your competitors, and because there are near bottomless arrays of competitors online as well as offline, you might want to consider having an inventory close by before you launch.

Conclusion:
So all the points mentioned above is your scenario, but you still feel driven toward the ever booming ecommerce industry, all hope isn’t lost. Short of having an inventory, all the others can either be learned or decided upon, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be building the next big thing. Do not ignore inventory though. To learn more about becoming an internet entrepreneur, visit my page on Facebook ( https://m.facebook.com/landermarkterrains/), do you know other signs to look out for? feel free to contribute . Thank you for reading.

You may have heard about the impending internet boom coming to Africa and especially to Nigeria. You could also be excited about the eCommerce growth metrics, and eager to tap into the rewards that they promise. Before you hop off excited and end up disappointed, you should ask yourself, will eCommerce be right for me, should I be opening an internet store? Here are five signs to indicate that you shouldn’t be doing eCommerce, these signs in fact apply to all businesses in the 21st century.

1. You need money Fast: As mentioned above, most people are going into ecommerce simply because of the money. This is not a bad reason of course, and in fact you should look forward to it, but if you need money, and you need it fast then you’re making the wrong choice. It takes ecommerce stores an average of 3 - 5 years to begin to see any profit, that is assuming they don’t fail. Therefore if you’re going in, be ready to sit it out. You should be in it for the long haul.

2. You need a guarantee: When is an entrepreneur no longer an entrepreneur? When they stop taking risks. Creative enterprises are by definition uncertain, which means if you need a guarantee that you won’t fail, that you won’t be wasting your resources, then don’t go into it. This is doubly so for internet businesses, because you not only have to compete with African giants like Jumia and Konga, you also have to face down the likes of Amazon, ebay and many other smaller ecommerce stores all over the internet and even traditional brick and mortar stores. If you don’t enjoy taking risks and immersing yourself in journeying through the uncertain, my advice, do not engage.

3. You’re not willing to take a step back: While the point on risk taking can cover this, it’s important that I point it out as a stand alone. Stepping back here refers to two things:
1. Foregoing your current comfort, which means sacrificing your all for this thing. It’s something you must choose to be either all in or not in at all. You must live for it, because there will be setbacks and disappointments and failures even you cannot believe.
2. Always having your eye on the big picture. Its easy to get lost in petty details but this could be especially disastrous to an internet entrepreneur, who must compete on many fronts. You must always have a birds eye view of the terrain, so you can instantly adapt, and make strategic decisions to help you maximise the impact of your limited resources. You must always be a step ahead, looking to the aftermath. This includes but is not limited to being up to date with technology and your competitors.

4. You’re not tech savvy: If you find everyday technology a bit too much to handle, then electronic commerce is definitely not your thing. Its easy to get lost in the never ending arrays of buttons, changing interfaces, codes, daily upgrades and the knowledge that’ll drive and maintain your site. Don’t even think about outsourcing it without getting to learn the basics. Your lack of knowledge on everything ecommerce will be a major disadvantage, and will keep incurring added costs. It doesn’t mean you should learn to code and all that stuff, but you should be tech savvy at least. This is something a mind open to learning can easily fix. What is a server?

5. You don’t have an inventory: If ecommerce had a ten commandment, then “Thou shalt ensure thy inventory” would be the second law. While this should be obvious to everyone, some still prefer to have an online store, then travel back and forth between stores to satisfy customer demands. This strategy either translates into higher prices or losses incurred by the store owner. Higher prices on the internet is a grave sin, breaking the first law “Thou shalt not have higher prices than your competition”. Unless you are providing an obvious value, you should maintain price levels equal or even less than your competitors, and because there are near bottomless arrays of competitors online as well as offline, you might want to consider having an inventory close by before you launch.

Conclusion:
So all the points mentioned above is your scenario, but you still feel driven toward the ever booming ecommerce industry, all hope isn’t lost. Short of having an inventory, all the others can either be learned or decided upon, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be building the next big thing. Do not ignore inventory though. To learn more about becoming an internet entrepreneur, visit my page on Facebook ( https://m.facebook.com/landermarkterrains/) and maybe be kind enough to like it . Thank you for reading.

You may have heard about the impending internet boom coming to Africa and especially to Nigeria. You could also be excited about the eCommerce growth metrics, and eager to tap into the rewards that they promise. Before you hop off excited and end up disappointed, you should ask yourself, will eCommerce be right for me, should I be opening an internet store? Here are five signs to indicate that you shouldn’t be doing eCommerce, these signs in fact apply to all businesses in the 21st century.

1. You need money Fast: As mentioned above, most people are going into ecommerce simply because of the money. This is not a bad reason of course, and in fact you should look forward to it, but if you need money, and you need it fast then you’re making the wrong choice. It takes ecommerce stores an average of 3 - 5 years to begin to see any profit, that is assuming they don’t fail. Therefore if you’re going in, be ready to sit it out. You should be in it for the long haul.

2. You need a guarantee: When is an entrepreneur no longer an entrepreneur? When they stop taking risks. Creative enterprises are by definition uncertain, which means if you need a guarantee that you won’t fail, that you won’t be wasting your resources, then don’t go into it. This is doubly so for internet businesses, because you not only have to compete with African giants like Jumia and Konga, you also have to face down the likes of Amazon, ebay and many other smaller ecommerce stores all over the internet and even traditional brick and mortar stores. If you don’t enjoy taking risks and immersing yourself in journeying through the uncertain, my advice, do not engage.

3. You’re not willing to take a step back: While the point on risk taking can cover this, it’s important that I point it out as a stand alone. Stepping back here refers to two things:
1. Foregoing your current comfort, which means sacrificing your all for this thing. It’s something you must choose to be either all in or not in at all. You must live for it, because there will be setbacks and disappointments and failures even you cannot believe.
2. Always having your eye on the big picture. Its easy to get lost in petty details but this could be especially disastrous to an internet entrepreneur, who must compete on many fronts. You must always have a birds eye view of the terrain, so you can instantly adapt, and make strategic decisions to help you maximise the impact of your limited resources. You must always be a step ahead, looking to the aftermath. This includes but is not limited to being up to date with technology and your competitors.

4. You’re not tech savvy: If you find everyday technology a bit too much to handle, then electronic commerce is definitely not your thing. Its easy to get lost in the never ending arrays of buttons, changing interfaces, codes, daily upgrades and the knowledge that’ll drive and maintain your site. Don’t even think about outsourcing it without getting to learn the basics. Your lack of knowledge on everything ecommerce will be a major disadvantage, and will keep incurring added costs. It doesn’t mean you should learn to code and all that stuff, but you should be tech savvy at least. This is something a mind open to learning can easily fix. What is a server?

5. You don’t have an inventory: If ecommerce had a ten commandment, then “Thou shalt ensure thy inventory” would be the second law. While this should be obvious to everyone, some still prefer to have an online store, then travel back and forth between stores to satisfy customer demands. This strategy either translates into higher prices or losses incurred by the store owner. Higher prices on the internet is a grave sin, breaking the first law “Thou shalt not have higher prices than your competition”. Unless you are providing an obvious value, you should maintain price levels equal or even less than your competitors, and because there are near bottomless arrays of competitors online as well as offline, you might want to consider having an inventory close by before you launch.

Conclusion:
So all the points mentioned above is your scenario, but you still feel driven toward the ever booming ecommerce industry, all hope isn’t lost. Short of having an inventory, all the others can either be learned or decided upon, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be building the next big thing. Do not ignore inventory though. To learn more about becoming an internet entrepreneur, visit my page on facebook (Peryton) and maybe be kind enough to like it . Thank you for reading.