As we enter into a new year, here is an opportunity to focus on improving your financial status. One way you can generate or increase your income is to engage in a viable business that is tested and proven to make profit.
If you are low in budget and need a business to start with little capital, such as N50,000 or less, which you can then grow from there, you are in luck today as we present 12 top business ideas we have found capable of making you consistent income, which you can scale up in due course.
You are also in luck today if you are on paid employment and are looking for a small business you can set up and run on part-time basis. You will definitely find one among the 12 that we have profiled.
So, sit back and devour our list of top businesses you can start in 2016 and pick the one that suits you to work on. Happy reading!
- Hair stylist
How do you start it?
Starting this line of business will require some skills or knowledge, and the time to acquire these skills or knowledge will also depend on how smart you are in learning. Some people are very gifted in learning fast, in fact, just by observing things they will have learnt so much while some must be held by the hand to know what to do.
There are a lot of shops around where you can be taught. Take for instance, if you are a woman and on a regular basis you make your hair, that stylist of yours is a potential trainer if you like what she does for you whenever you go there.
What you will pay to have the knowledge or skill can be negotiated based on what you actually want or what you want to know. There are various levels of training and what to learn.
you can start from your home, if for instance you leave in an estate and every lady has to go out of the estate to fix their hair, then you have a very huge market in your hand, but you have to be sure there is no restriction on trading or sales of anything within the estate. So if you have done all that you need to do about marketing your service, then the next thing is how you charge for the service or how much people are willing to pay.
How much can you make?
What is the profit potential of this business? You need to know this because this is what will drive you, now if you leave in an estate like I mentioned before, and you have about 300 women, including girls, and you target just 30% of these number, now because you are just starting many might feel you are not good enough to fix their hair, then you can introduce a strategy to capture them, such as doing free styles or giving a huge discount.
- Selling of cosmetic products
So, if you setup a cosmetics shop, where ladies can come to get the best kind of products for their bodies, you will not only be meeting needs but also you will be making money. This is what the Mary Kay’s of this world saw that they spend billions of dollars every year researching cosmetic products that will best suit any skin type under any climatic condition in any region or continent of the world. This is a very huge business opportunity for someone who has flare for beautifying the skin.
The beauty of this kind of business is that it is very unique, unique in the sense that every human skin you see on the surface of the earth is unique, but there may be some form of resemblance and adaptation. The human skin is made up of cells, so your ability to test and define the best cosmetics for a particular type of skin will make you money.
If you are not gifted enough for this, you can go for training, which is highly recommended because if you are not trained to know how to identify the uniqueness of each skin type that ladies have and you go ahead to prescribe body cream for them, you may be doing more harm than good, so you just have to know it, don’t assume, don’t authoritatively ask your customers and friends to go and use a product that you are not sure of the outcome, irrespective of the skin type.
- Home based Importation business
Get the knowledge
In every business, there is know-how to doing that business right, there are quite a lot of places you can go to get the know-how for home based importation business, but at the same time you need to be sure they know what they are saying. The best teacher in life is doing what you know how to and love to do, turning that passion into business.
Everyone of us or some of us have one relative or the other abroad, these are people we know and they also know us in terms of capabilities, so, you could start with your family or friends that live in UK, USA CHINA, anywhere in the world that some of the products you want to market are produced in large quantity at best prices, best quality.
So, you will first identify which of the products you want to sell, identifying what you want to sell or what your customers need can be a challenge for some people while it is not for others, but in case you are finding it difficult to identify what you can sell, you may have to visit the open market and see what people are buying and what is really selling.
You also have to consider the season and the time which you are in, now it is the New Year season, which will not be for a very long time and a lot of shopping is going on and also it depends on the buying power of your target market that will also determine what you sell, so you could ask your friends as well.
Your personal observations also matters, now when you have been able to identify what to sell, then getting it across should not be a problem, but if you still have that as a challenge, while you are been trained, you need to ask that as a question so that you can be guided.
What successfully importers do is that, after getting the products based on request, like I have brought in used digital cameras both for professional and amateur photographers and I sold more than 600 pieces of it. At another time I brought in over 250 boxers for men and I sold them all. Now, all these I sold because I was able to market them effectively to those who need them.
Like I said earlier, you can actually import anything you know you can sell, but you will have to consider the clearing of these goods either at the airport or at the seaport, with the help of a clearing agent you cannot go wrong but you need to know a qualified clearing agent so you don’t fall into the wrong hands. But note that it is the volume of what you are bringing in that will determine if you will need the service of a clearing agent.
If your goods came in through a friends hand luggage you will not need the service of a clearing agent and that will reduce your cost, so I advice you start with your friends and families, it will actually reduce cost for you, though some of them may find it difficult to want to carry any load but you have to plead with them and if possible give them some money for the extra luggage, by that you are saving time, some more money, and yourself the stress of running around for the pickup at the port.
Let me emphasize that this business is mini importation, meaning that the total volume of your import is limited, something within $100 and $1,000 or even less, and it is best done if you have someone abroad who can assist you with the purchase and delivery.
- Makeup and beautician business
Mrs Titilola Eromona, CEO and Founder Tilton Home, speaks on the business opportunities in the industry:
To do any of the niche in this industry successfully it’s important to have solid information and knowledge before delving into it because anything that has to with women you just have to be sure you know what you are doing because ladies are the toughest clients to satisfy and they usually can tell in just few minutes of meeting you whether you are an expert in your field or not.
If they don't think you know what you are doing they will turn back and will even discourage others from coming to you but if they sense that you are an expert they will be so loyal and will be great in referring other clients to you. So it’s important to go to certified/excellent beauty schools or become an intern/apprentice with an established beauty house.
The capital needed to start is based on the type of business and the size at which you want to begin. Ideally, some of them can be started by being mobile at first and as the business grows one can get a shop or office, but the best advice I give is start by offering your service or selling your products even if you have just N5, 000, however as the business grows, save and reinvest.
Experience has taught me that when dealing in this type of business, it is best to focus on only 1 or 2 niches that are related as jack of all trades is looked down upon and is paid peanuts, but experts/professionals are paid the big bucks. You can start with one, like I started with beauty consultancy/makeup artistry about 10 yrs ago while I was back in university. Later, I realized I had a natural inclination to give beauty advice and tips, and it’s been a great and fulfilling journey and I wouldn't trade it for another career path.
The easiest advice I give from practical experience to those intending to go into this form of business is "get your work out there 1st". At first it will seem you are giving free advice or free service, but once people get that chance to experience your business they will gladly pay the fees that you charge. Also, women love to be pampered and treated like the queen that they are so if you take this business very seriously and you know what you are doing you can be earning huge amount of money on a weekly bases.
Mrs Titilola Eromona can be reached on Facebook:Tilton home and Instagram:Tiltonhome
- Event hall management business
What do you need to do?
First is to get a list of all the event centers within and out of your locality and enter an agreement with the managers of these centers. Get to know their dos and don’ts; know how they operate, what they charge, and the duration. Most importantly, build a relationship with them. You can agree with them on the commission you will receive for every client that comes thorough you; how high you can charge and best low they can bargain.
But I like to sound this warning before hand, make sure your agreement is firm enough that nobody goes behind you to get a lower discount after you have agreed with the client, sometimes some clients tend to play smart, in that after you have negotiated and agreed on price, they go behind you to renegotiate with either the owner or those in charge of the hall or center, so you must iron this aspect of the business, because you can loss major jobs because of this.
Now, if you have succeeded in doing all of these, you can then go ahead to run a jingle or newspaper advert to publicize your offers, but if you don’t have enough money for any form of advert, you then have to be aggressive in your word of mouth advertisement which may cost you less. You can also do whatsapp, facebook, twitter message broadcasting, etc., but these are very demanding.
What you charge will be based on what the management of the center agrees with so that if by any reason your client happens to hear from the owners they will give same amount so that you don’t look like you want to cheat them. And this is why entering an agreement with the owners on percentage bases is very important.
If they know that through you they are sure of getting all their halls or centers booked every week, they will have no option than to listen to your advice. If you discover that this business is not already happening in your area, then you can be the first to start it, but if they are already doing it, you could still partner with those doing it and still earn your commission.
Let us assume you have 4 to 5 event centers that give you commission every week, and you get N5, 000 commission from one, then times 5 centers and that brings your weekly income to N25,000, that is money if you ask me, which you can increase by getting more customers for more event centers.
- Partnering with estate agents
What do you have to do?
This is very simple, you don’t have to appear too formal, just make it very simple. In the past I have in one way or the other assisted friends and family members get accommodation or buy properties, later I told myself that if not for relationship I could have made some money by just referring my friends and family members to those agents.
Get a list of agents you know or those leaving within your neighborhood, know what property they have to sell or rent out and do an advert either free or paid offline or online, then be on the lookout for people to show interest and then you refer them to the agent, but note that before you refer them you must have entered an agreement that you will get a certain percentage of the agent commission that will be paid.
What you will be earning initially may be small because some properties are owned to 3rd or 4th parties. How do I mean? If you see an agent that tells you he has a property, by the time you want to go and see the property, you will discover he is just calling another agent that may also need to call another agent who is actually the original agent in charge of the property.
So when the property is eventually taken, every agent that worked on it before it was taken has to be compensated in one way or the other. So you that is just coming in as a newbie or partner will have to receive small thing, but if you are able to get across to the original agent, that means the fewer the merrier.
Even though it is not negotiable amongst the agent themselves, but you are not the regular agent per say, so you need to clarify something’s with agents you want to rent or sell their properties, if you are consistent, before you know it, you would have made some good amount of money that you will be considering becoming an estate agent as a full time business.
- Coaching for extra academic lessons, music, marshal art, singing, dancing, fitness centers, driving etc.
Well, I don’t think you will need much to start any of these. Sometimes ago I met a friend who just left secondary school and said she was looking for job to do before her admission is ready, I told her to start a tutorial class for children in her compound, each child to pay N50 and at the end of the day she was making about N1, 000 everyday for 2hours lesson with the children.
Now, if you are an academician, that is you love reading, studying, teaching, and solving problems that relate to any subject, you will find teaching students a pleasure and it won’t be a difficult thing for you to start, the same thing goes for the others.
If you like music and you know how to sing, or you like dancing and you know how to dance, or you know marshal art, you can even start with children in your neighborhood and as you make progress you will begin to expand your tent.
Your friends’ children and those in your church can be your first clients. You can even approach schools to train their students in marshal art, singing, or musical instrument. The beauty of these businesses is that you may not even have any of the talent or skill required to train people, but you know someone who has them and they are ready to teach others. You could partner with them and agree on percentage sharing.
The truth is that someone somewhere will be interested once you start making money, but how you continue is what matters.
For the driving lessons, you don’t even need to own a car, you can meet those guys that are already running the training at various locations across the country to partner with them to supply them with individuals that are interested in learning driving. But know that if you have to teach people how to drive either with your car or theirs, you must be sure to have a valid driver’s license as it is one of the credentials for driving.
Also, for the fitness center, you can either own one or partner with an existing one. How do you go about that? Fitness centers nowadays are well appreciated as people now understand the essence of keeping fit. You could come up with a program for schools and other organizations, because we know that people find it hard to take time off for break or leisure. If you are able to design a program that will improve the lives of busy folks, they will appreciate it and pay for it.
The way you want to do that can be very strategic based on the location and the environment where you and your prospects leave. And I also think that the best time for you to carry out your program should be determined by prospects as it suits them.
- Event/Interior decoration
You really don’t have to have too many thousands of Naira to start this kind of business, because Rome wasn’t built in a day, so, you have to start with what you have and where you are. When I was still in Warri, Delta state, I was involved in decorating my church for a very long time, and I was doing it with a lot of zeal and zest, I was not bordered about being paid or compensated. But at some point down the line I had to leave Warri and behold there was a very big vacuum to the extent that at some point when the church was going to celebrate a major event, there was nobody willing to change the decoration, that the pastor had to call me to come and assist them with the decoration, but at this time I was far away in Abuja.
Now, why am I saying this? Sometimes we have the opportunity to show our skills but we hide it and even when we are not around we are not missed at all because we were never making any meaningful contribution to our society. Today, event/interior decoration business is one income source for me.
It doesn’t matter how you are starting out, just let people feel your presence and make impact with the skill/talent God has blessed you with and before you know it, your gift will begin to make way for you. If you make your decoration/interior skills known to those very close to you, you may not be making the kind of money you want to make initially, but if you continue before you know it, you will become a hot cake that people will be sorting after with money in hand.
But if you are gifted in these areas you can also learn the trade and begin to practice before you become perfect. To learn any of the trade is not as difficult as learning to fly a plan. What it only takes is your passion and determination. I have trained quite a few guys who are doing very well today, and I also know that there are a lot of places you can go out there to get trained.
How much can you earn?
What you earn in this business is strictly dependent on what you know and how best you know it. To decorate an event hall that will seat 250 people in Lagos today will cost nothing less than N80, 000. This is also subject to the area in question. For instance, if you have to decorate this same hall in an area like Ajegunle, you may have to price less, but if you are going to decorate the same capacity hall in Eko Hotel and Suite, you will definitely charge higher.
What will inform your pricing are location, personality and taste of your clients. Some clients actually come with pictures of what they want and how they want it, so all you need to do is cost appropriately so you are not short changing yourself. Give them a reasonable quote and if they feel satisfied with it, you get the job.
If you have mastered the act and you know what to do, what to say, and how to do it, you will be amazed how much you can make weekly.
The same thing goes for interior décor, clients will invite you to their homes and want you to makeover their home, and if you don’t have all that it takes, you may lose out, but if you have been trained, or you are gifted in blending colors to match, then you are in the right business. Although, most clients usually have their choice designs, but you still have to advice them to ensure their choice is right, or if wrong you correct them.
One thing you must not do is to insist that what you are suggesting should be final. Let them be part of the decision making process even though you are the interior décor, because they are the ones to leave there and so you must be able to explain to them why you are doing what you do and why the choice of the materials you are using.
- Running a daycare service in your neighborhood
Now, if you find yourself in this kind of environment where you have a lot of working class women, you are in business, but before the children start to come, you must do or have the following in place.
You need to have the passion for taking care of children:
Passion is one major thing anybody that wants to succeed in life must have for what they do. You must love children and you must know how to care for children. If you have those two things then you have found another source of income.
You also need a space that is very convenient for the children to play and play again. When you don’t have enough money to rent a place, you could start with children of friends and family, even if you have to admit them for free, and because you are just starting on a low key, you may not charge very high or as much as others charge, but you have to make sure you are able to take something that will be reasonable.
Please note that as you start, you may be drawing the attention of others and even those in government but not to worry, you will always overcome whatever challenge you come across but you also need to be determined and focused on what you have set out to do and once you have made some level of success, you can then proceed to taking the vision to yet another level.
Some may still feel they don’t have to pay for the service you are rendering to them, but don’t worry you will soon drop such person’s child and focus on the ones that appreciate what you are doing. Also, note that as you make progress, you will be making arrangement to be ready for the government officials that go around making sure that this kind of business is done the right way.
Sometimes, it is even better to know all the requirements before you start, but some individuals get discouraged easily over little frustration, that is why sometimes we also advice that you just start something small and make sure your eyes are open and your ears on ground, so that you are not taken unaware.
- Neighborhood laundry service
If you leave in a very busy and densely populated environment, this will not be a bad business to do at all because you have the market right in front of you. And to think of starting it will be very easy depending on your level of entry.
I spoke with a friend sometimes ago who runs a laundry business, he said he knew someone who invested the sum of N10million into a laundry business and after 7months the person felt frustrated and sold the business and cashed out less than N3million. Now, what will you say about that? Was it that he didn’t have enough money to run the business or what?
Everything is not about money, and it is not about you seeing Mr. A doing the business and succeeding in it and because of that you too think you can do it. It is about knowing what to do and how to do it. This takes us to how important acquiring the know-how is. Please, understand that the know-how that we are talking about is in levels and phases.
Do you need a special know-how to wash your clothes? The answer is no. but if you have to do this business more professionally, then, you cannot do without the right know-how. People fail in business not because they don’t have money to run the business but because they lack the right knowledge on how to manage it.
There is enough money to be made in laundry business but you need to work diligently hard and to learn all that it takes for you to run a profitable laundry service business. You can walk up to an already established laundry business service centre and make your inquiries. Some of them actually train people who want to do this business, so from that training you will know all that is required.
You don’t even need a shop to start a laundry business, you can start from your home and be doing home delivery service and from there you can build the business.
If you have 10 customers that bring minimum of 5 clothes each, making a total of 50 clothes to you every week and you times that by N200, which is what you charge for one, that will amount to N10, 000 in a week. You can then scale it up to get more customers and also get existing customers to bring more clothes and other materials.
- Neighbourhood cleaning and fumigation service business
Why did I say it is highly professional? It is because sometimes people take a lot of things for granted. Some months ago, I learnt of how a mother got some chemicals to disinfect her home and she carelessly placed the bottle in her home. While she was away, her little daughter found the bottle and drank some of the chemical. She was rushed to the hospital where I met them.
Also, not only that these chemicals can kill, it can also damage your skin or property, so you have to learn how to mix them up appropriately and how to dispose of them immediately after use. These chemicals are powerful that they can even destroy the spraying can if not properly mixed or disposed off on time.
Nobody likes to see pests or insects around them so they constantly resist them from where they leave.
What you charge and how you go about doing the job, as well as the chemical that is required to take care of a particular pest or insect, are all what will be explained to you when you go for the training before starting.
You can be trained at various places, SADC has organized such trainings in the past, if you are interested you can contact us at SADC and you will be guided, but I also know that there are several places out there that will offer you that service, but you have to do your due diligent to ensure they deliver what they promise.
Your target markets are hospitals, schools, industries, and other business places, and you can also visit places of worship to offer your service, and from there you can get referrals if you have done a good job.
How much can you earn?
What you earn may depend on the extent of service you render, some do complete fumigation, some specify what they want and the area of the house you should focus on, and so the charges varies, but if you are trained by a professional you should be able to get a price range you can work with and still be making good profit from the business.
But seriously, I assure you that this business is lucrative, because it is not like what people do every day, so you need to have a large data base of customers you want to be visiting every 6months to take care of their environments, which includes offices and homes.
- Product reselling
Let me give you a very quick example: In the cities there are quite a number of products in large supply that are however scarce in the rural areas. If you are able to get these products across to people in the rural areas you will be meeting their needs and you can earn their money. At this point I may not be able to specifically say that this is the product to resell, but you can tell based on your findings in the area you want to supply.
On the other hand, most of us have travelled to our villages at different times and you know some of the things that you find difficult to get where you are based in the city but are plentiful and even wasting away in the village. You might not be the only person who needs these things in the cities, so you can start a business going to the village to get items that are in good demand in the cities, put a reasonable price on them and make a good profit.
I know a lot of people who are into this kind of business and they are making it, because you have done it once or twice, you could even enter an agreement with the driver that usually bring you, in case you are not driving, to help you deliver it once it gets to him at the park, either through a family member or a friend you have also made an arrangement with in the village, so it means you don’t have to be on the road every now and then to get your produce in.
So, it will work both ways, either you are bringing in things from the village to sell in town or you are taking things from the town to sell in the village, either way, you are in business. You may not even need to travel at some point, like I know it happens in Lagos, because of the population in Lagos compared to other states in Nigeria, you could do this business successfully in Lagos without travelling to any village.
If you are able to locate a place where things are sold in bulk or whole sale price, you can buy and resell to retailers. You don’t have to have a shop to do this business, you could be doing it on part time as you have the time, and if you are able to make progress you can then decide what level you want to take it to. It works in Computer Village, in Ikeja, and it works in Oke Arin Market in Lagos, it also works in Oshodi Market and in Alaba Int’l Market, Ojo, as well as in Mile 12.
So locate a market and solve a problem and get paid.
Conclusion:
Each of the 12 businesses we have discussed can really help you to make extra income or start a business in the New Year, which you can grow into a huge enterprise in a few years. But understand that nobody says the road won’t be rough, but if you are determined, focused and determined to success against all odds, you will scale through any huddle that you see on the way. But I tell you the truth, the major obstacle you are going to have is your very self. Not to believe that you could do it, and not to do anything at all will mean that you don’t need extra income.
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