₦airaland Forum

For those with the aspiration of attending a business school, I will be bringing you MBA tips from a typical school curriculum as often as I can.

What stage is your business?
Every business is in any of these stages.

Chicken or question mark Stage
This is simply a stage where your customers are still few but they keep increasing everyday i.e little market share with high possibility for growth.
Imagine when indomie noodles was introduced about 15 years ago, most of us teenagers or kids at the time have never heard of the word noodles with the exception of those of you born and bred in China. We quickly fell in love with the worms in mama's pot because it was easy, cheap, tasty and fast; it took only 4 minutes to prepare a pack. The market share of indomie noodles was very tiny but the possibility for growth was huge. So the managers at indomie noodles were happy and hopeful that one day they will keep smiling to the banks.

Eagle or Star Stage:
This is a stage where you now have plenty of customers and they still keep increasing i.e large market share and the possibility of growth is still enormous.
After a while, say 2 years, indomie was everywhere in shops, kiosks and corners 247. You will always find a pack of indomie in every trash can or most trash cans. Mothers bribed children with indomie and new borns instead of crying upon delivery sang the latest indomie advert. The demand for indomie was far more than they could supply. So the managers kept smiling to the banks including the "Alhaja" in Obalende.

I will post the other two stages later.


Culled from: www.businessinlagos..com

@ Op Good work sir

Ewenla202:
@ Op Good work sir

Thanks. I will be asking business related questions better still set exams for you all lol.

Cash Cow Stage:
This is a stage where you still have plenty of customers but they are no longer increasing i.e a large market share with a very low possibility for growth or expansion.
Years after, indomie noodles is now mature with the largest market share but aren't growing as fast as they were when they launched. This is because several other noodle brands have surfaced; Chikki, dangote noodles, honey well noodles and many others. All of them came in and grabbed there are own share of the market thereby slowing down indomie. Alhaja's shop is home to all of these other brands so she still smiles to the bank while the managers at indomie finds a way to expand into new markets.

Dog Stage:
At this stage, your customers are very few and they are not increasing i.e little market share with a low or no possibility for growth.
If you decide to introduce another brand of noodles let's say "indolick" considering the present competition, you will have to beg "Alhaja" to stock your "indolick" in her shop. Then you will come back after a week for your money; that is if she ever makes more than a few sales and hasn't used the money for "Amala and Gbegiri". In a saturated market this is what you get. There are a million brands of noodles everywhere so your share of the market will be so small, smaller than a needles eye in a mature market.
All the money you will likely make will just be to run the business. Transportation, phone calls, bills and the rest. If you are able to break even; a situation where there is neither gain nor loss, consider yourself lucky and head to church for thanks giving.

www.businessinlagos..com