Starting a Business in Nigeria – How I Got Started.

The journey to starting a business in Nigeria to enable you become your own boss can be lonely and full of uncertainties – especially if you’re embarking on it alone.

I’ve failed at several business attempts and won at a few. I’ve decided to lay bare my wins and losses – to share my entrepreneurial journey with you so that you can achieve your desired results faster than you thought possible.

My name is Mamudu Hamzat Gideon and I’m 27 years old. I studied chemistry education from the Federal University of Technology Minna,  I just finished my NYSC in Benue state and I currently reside in Abuja. I’m currently interning at an event and publishing company.

NOTE: This is a long article so I’m giving away a free eBook to all who read it to the end.

My journey into entrepreneurship started a long time ago… long before I got admitted into the university. I used to help my mom sell cakes at one time and then groundnuts at another time. I’d say she played a great role in fueling the fire of entrepreneurship within me. Watching her hustle when her salary delayed or just wasn’t sufficient for her as a little boy taught me never to settle for a salary and to start seeking out for opportunities to better my lot. I wish she was still here.

My journey to making money on the internet and eventually building an online business has been a long one.

How did it start?

The year was 2008, I went to say hello to a senior friend one of those days and since he knew I was always online asked me a question “Hamzat, do you make money on the internet?” I had never thought about such possibility until that time.

Little did I know that that question will affect the rest of my life.

I left his house that day and headed straight for the cyber cafe (a place that had become home for me at the time seeing that I had just finished my secondary school and was waiting for the outcome of the exams).

I opened a web browser and typed in the words that had been on my mind since I had that conversation with him into google search…

“How to Make Money on The Internet”

…to my surprise, there were over 125,076 pages returned.

I dived in!

Several hours later, I had signed up to several newsletters promising to make me like $10,000 per month for free.

Many of them were scams. I was ignorant so I joined.

I later bought one eBook promising to show me how to make money on the internet through online surveys. I went to a night browsing and spent the whole night trying to make money… I made a few cents here and there but I couldn’t withdraw it. I got a virtual address and even tried to open a PayPal account before coming to accept the bitter truth…

…Online surveys were not for Nigerians. (Any online business that doesn’t pay you as a Nigerian is simply not for you so thread carefully)

I didn’t give up.

I created several blogs in an attempt to make money through Google Adsense. I did all the wrong things (clicked on my own adverts and asked friends to be clicking on them for me) and had my account banned after a while.

Thankfully I met someone who hired me to write articles for him… I earned 400 Naira per article and I was to write four articles per day for five days a week.  I eventually learned how he was making money with the articles I was writing for him and that was how I started doing affiliate marketing.

I bought my first laptop in 2010 with the money I made from writing articles and affiliate marketing on ClickBank.

It’s been seven years now. I’ve grown. I’ve made mistakes and learned significant lessons. I’ve seen results too but I do not yet make millions per month on the internet.

 

 

 

I still made money from the internet in the course of my service year but not as I’d have wanted it to be.

The biggest obstacle I’ve had to deal with has been inconsistency. Inconsistency robs you of getting anything meaningful because starting a business requires patience. From struggling with school work to being posted to a village where there’s no consistent electricity supply or stable mobile network talk more of the internet… I’ve been largely inconsistent. Not anymore. Life’s short and we’ve got to do what we’re chosen to do real fast.

I’ll put systems in place to help me be consistent this time, I know it’s going to be demanding because of my job but I’ve decided to do it. I’ll find a way. Night time and weekends.

This is not my first blog. The last blog I started was getting a few hundred to a thousand visitors each month but it wasn’t making any money (It’s been three years!) and it wasn’t focused on a particular subject. You can check it out here.

I plan to still keep it because it’s in my name but it will no longer be my primary blog for sharing until I have a clear plan for it.

So you see I’m just a regular guy following my passion. I don’t get it right all the time but I learn real fast and do what I can to minimize the mistakes I make – I don’t have all the time to learn from my own experiences so I try to learn from the experience of others too.  Most importantly, I take action.

Oh yes!

I take action.

I’ve lost count of how many domain names I’ve registered and didn’t follow through or how many businesses I’ve started and lost passion for along the way…

I’ve learned to give myself permission to grow. So I learn, I take action, I make mistakes, learn, re-strategize and take action. So you see, many of the articles you’ll get from here are going to be brutally honest… there would be no magic formula that will not require you to put in the work. Sorry.

Why Am I Starting This Blog?

I already mentioned earlier that I had a job. I’ll intern for a while (it’s actually 3 months on paper but I’m hoping it will be lesser) before being engaged fully – that’s the deal.

Something happened in my first week at work and someone said something that awoke the entrepreneurial spirit within me. He said, “There are 1,000,001 people willing to do more than what you’re doing for much less.”

I don’t know what his intention for saying that was but it didn’t scare me. I had been a freelancer for a while and I decided to get a job to enable me to learn systems real time. How to build big things.

I spent a great deal of time thinking about what he said and what it meant. I believe I’ve been called to the marketplace. To not just build businesses and make money for me but to show people how to do the same. So I kept thinking, so I have a job now.

What about the others?

I have very dear friends who are yet to get jobs so I know for sure that it’s not a pleasant experience.

That week, I decided on how long I intend to work as an employee and I began to think of how to start my own business on the side. I realized there were so many graduates who are currently unemployed and looking for ways to start their own business. There are also young graduates who are underemployed and looking for how to start their own business on the side.

That’s why I started this blog, to share my journey to starting a side business right here in Nigeria with you and help you start your own business.

So what should you expect from this blog?

• Business Ideas you can start with little capital
• Practical ideas you can use to start your own business
• Case studies, wins, and lessons learned from my own entrepreneurial journey
• Interviews with Nigerian graduates who have successfully become their own bosses
• Motivation and Inspiration when you’re feeling discouraged on your journey
• Practical guides on how to start specific businesses both online and offline right here in Nigeria

I plan to post content on this blog twice every week – one article and a video (typically motivational). But when it get’s really hard, I’ll try to do once a week.

Who is this blog for?

The content shared in this blog will be relevant to anyone one who desires to start a business but this blog is primarily for unemployed graduates who have a desire to start their own business but do not know exactly how to go about it and for underemployed graduates who desire to start a part-time business on the side.

I have an idea of what it feels like to go through school and come out not knowing what to do  – and you’re wondering what was all that stress for?

I understand that the road to starting your own business in Nigeria as a graduate can be a lonely one. This blog is my sincere attempt to point you in the right direction. A path of financial freedom. I’m not there yet but I’m on track… and I can show you how to pass through where I’ve already passed.

So How Can You Get Involved?

If we’re going to embark on a journey together then you have to be involved right?

There are three ways you can be involved here.

1. The first way you can be involved here is to read and apply the things you’ll learn here. Don’t just mentally agree with them, DO THEM. That’s how you produce results – taking action!
2. The second way is to start a conversation in the comment section below each post, ask questions make your own contributions and feel free to share if you have different opinions.
3. Invite other people to visit the blog. Share the posts on your Facebook and other social media platforms.
4. If you have any article that you want to share, get in touch with me. I’ll post it here and give you credits accordingly.

You can get in touch with me if you have any challenge and I’ll gladly help out. Contact me on Facebook.

 

My Expectations for this Blog…

Yeah. I have expectations for this blog.

I’m looking at moving this blog to a daily visitor count of 50 readers in 3 – 6 months. I also plan to make money from this blog, yes. I expect this blog to make 30,000 Naira monthly in 6 months. While this might not seem like much, it will be enough to take care of the monthly expense of running the blog – paying for internet subscription and advertising. This money will come from display ads and information guides that solve specific problems for my audience.

I must confess that I do not completely know how this will happen right now but I do know it’s going to take a lot of work on my end and I’m willing to put in the work.

I have a free guide titled “3 Questions to Ask to Help You Decide if A Business Ideas is Worth Pursuing. Click here to download it now”