I read a story on success.com about a man, John, 53 years old, who lost his job in a company he has worked for 8 years. He has worked himself up to a position in middle management with a decent salary and great benefits. Now, he is out of a job.
Having spent his entire adult life in corporate positions, he knew he could go job hunting. But this was the fifth time he’d had a “secure” position shot out from under him, whether through downsizing, restructuring or other reorganization. With a wife and two teenagers to clothe and feed, he was no longer willing to trust his future to this game of corporate roulette. It was time to go into business for himself.
Sad story!
Do you want to be like John? Are you waiting until you are 53, when you have a family to feed and cater for before you’ll make the decision to start your own business?
The government and tertiary institutions encourages the youths (even if just by word of mouth) to go into entrepreneurship because everyone knows that there are limited number of jobs available for the ever-growing number of graduates trooping out of our tertiary institutions each year… but it seems some of us still don’t get the hang of it.
According to strategicbusinessteam.com, these are why you should start your own business in Nigeria this 2015:
- Nigeria is a country with a population of over 170 million and growing rapidly. This means that there’s a ready market for products that fulfill a need or solves a problem.
- Nigeria is a rapidly developing country and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. What this means is that there is still a lot of untapped niches and opportunities in virtually every sector.
- Nigeria is blessed with both mineral and natural resources that are under-exploited.
- Nigeria is currently facing some critical internal problems with respect to security and the rest. But savvy entrepreneurs know that problems are simply opportunities in disguise. Just bear in mind that there’s a lot of money to be made from these problems; if only you will keep an open mind.
Why haven’t you started your own business? If you answer right, it is usually FEAR. Fear of failure. Fear, that people will mock you when you don’t succeed.
What you should be afraid of is not getting a job at all; you should be afraid of being laid off from the job you have or plan to have; you should fear what the future holds for you after retirement when you are not able to keep much savings because your paycheck goes entirely into catering for your family. There are worse things you should fear.
Jason Njoku, founder of IROKOtv, said in his own words “I am a certified failure”. He had tried series of businesses for over 8 years after graduation from the university and had failed in all. He finally started IROKOtv (now worth over $30 million) and now he is listed in Forbes Young African Millionaires to watch.
So… I am not saying that you will not fail if you try to start up a business, I am saying that in the midst of those failures you learn, you improve and if you are persistent, you must make it eventually and if you are smart, you will make it BIG.
For a student who wants to start up a business, university is the best place to start your first business. If you have an idea, put passion into it and go for it. If u fail, good. It means that you failed early and you learn early and gain experience early. You don’t have a family to take care of, so failure doesn’t affect you seriously. And who knows? You could create the next big thing. An undergraduate, Mark Zuckerberg, founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room.
There are benefits of starting your own business: you possess real job security, you enjoy freedom to design your own life, you live a life of greater impact and you make more money… Yes… more income, that increases as your retirement days draw closer.
I don’t have to tell you that you don’t need an MBA to start a business; you don’t need to be rich or have huge capital to start up a business.
But you must know this: What you save in cash capital you will make up for in sweat equity and passion. The major investment in most self-owned businesses is investment of one’s self in the form of time, focus and persistence. You need a burning desire and determination fuelled by a strong dose of passion!
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