…and entrepreneurial tips for the day
There are fundamental principles behind the success of every business. Several new entrepreneurs keep breaking the rules and keep having negative results, which always lead to the collapse of their businesses.
When starting an enterprise, you do not do things because you feel like doing them or they are what you can do at that moment. Such attitudes do not end well. To have a successful business, there are rules to follow.
Things you should not do while starting your business
1. Copying: Imitating someone else’s business is a fashion in Nigeria. Most businesspeople love copying the modes of other businesses. For example, a new cocktail bar opens, and within six months, you will see several of such a bar in that vicinity, creating unnecessary competition. Eventually, before you know it, all the bars would fold due to lack of expertise and customers. The owners would then start grieving over their lost investments, telling others that nothing works in this country. Before you start a business, you should have the special skill for it. For example, if you love to open a wine shop, go to and learn from those who have been in that business for a long time. You should learn about the types of drinks they sell, how they obtain them, and the do’s and don’ts for the trade. Do not open a shop because someone just opened its kind on your street, and it is beautiful and busy.
2. Getting a loan with a high interest rate and short repayment period: The biggest mistake you would ever make while starting a business is to get a loan from a financial institution or a loan shark at a very high rate of interest, along with a short repayment time. How will that work? You are just starting a business, and you are trying to get customers or clients to make sales. So, how do you repay the loan? Such creditors would expect you to start paying back immediately, either weekly or monthly. How will you meet that commitment? Inevitably, you will find yourself giving to them all the money you get, even borrowing from individuals, to avoid rude calls and embarrassment. Therefore, if you’re running a shop, that will keep you in the situation where you cannot replenish your stock regularly to meet your customers’ demands. In the end, your shop would close down, and you would be left in a bad loan situation.
If you want to start a business and you lack funds, go to a bank that gives loans on low interest rates with fair repayment periods. However, if you can get loans from friends or relatives without interests, that will be better. Moreover, you can search for small investors within your community, who would want to be part of your business. I’m telling you; there are still people in our society who do not know how to invest their finances. They would be glad if they see a trustworthy, result-oriented and productive partner.
3. Credit sales: Selling on credit is not good for a business, especially a new one. Though a few customers have integrity to repay their debts in time, some do not pay back, even if they can. They would rather go to another shop to get their supplies. Bad credit will impede your business growth.
Entrepreneural idea for today
In the previous edition of The Entrepreneur, I unveiled how you can start a dispatch rider business. In this edition, I will be discussing how to commence a food vendor business, aka mama put business.
The name, mama put, seems quite amusing. ”Mama put” originated in those days in the 80s. Then, at lunchtime, school children would surround elderly female food sellers in their schools and would be shouting “mama put” in order to get served first. Intriguing: isn’t it?
In Nigeria, in the 90s, special restaurants, including those that served fast food, sprung up all over the place. At this time, you could only see the small-scale mama put food vendors at the markets. Suddenly, around the 2010s, the mama put business resurfaced everywhere, and that was when food in the special places got too expensive to buy with fixed prices. The availability of mama put food sellers here and there was a relief for some Nigerians because they could purchase food with small amounts. Besides, they had a variety of African food to choose from. I noticed that, in Benin City, a lot of people patronize these mama put vendors, even the “big boys and babes”. Honestly, some mama put dishes in Benin City are really delicious and irresistible.
Things needed for mama put food vendor business
1. Tentlike canopy/umbrella: As a starter, you need a small tentlike canopy to shelter your customers from the weather. The canopy will enable you to keep tables and chairs so that your customers can have where to sit and eat their food. Nonetheless, if you cannot afford a canopy, you should get a big umbrella, but that would make you sell only takeaways, which means that your customers will buy food, take it away, and eat somewhere else.
2. Cooking utensils: These are what you use for cooking and serving your customers. They include pots, bowls, spoons, plates, etc. You should get the ones you need and can afford at the moment.
3. Gas cooker: As a starter, you need at least two gas cookers. Also, get the sizes you can afford.
4. Location/space: This is very important. Do not locate your business in residential areas, where residents cook in their homes. Try to get a place where businesses are situated. Such places have people who are away from their homes and would buy food when they get hungry.
5. Chafing dishes/thermal food containers: Chafing dishes are used to contain and display food, and they give one’s business a touch of class. Nevertheless, if you can not get them now, go for thermal boxes of various sizes.
6. Tables & chairs: These will attract more customers since they have where to sit and eat their food immediately after buying it.
7. Funds: This is the money you will use to buy foodstuffs for cooking. You can start with any amount. Besides, you can start cooking one kind of dish and later on offer a variety of dishes.
8. Expertise/experience: You must be a good cook to be successful in this business, or else buyers will not come back to you. Most people do not like buying bland food. Therefore, you must have experience in cooking with the ability to prepare delicious dishes. Moreover, you should know how to keep your food spot neat. Furthermore, if you can not employ hands yet, you can start alone and do only what you can, then get helpers later.
Overall, if you can have all the things stated above, you will make it as a food vendor because this business is a highly lucrative one in Nigeria, despite the high cost of foodstuffs.
