MOST GOOD SMALL BUSINESSES FAIL EVEN BEFORE THEY START - SEE WHY

A LOT OF SMALL BUSINESSES HAVE FAILED IN NIGERIA. MAYBE YOU HAVE SUFFERED THIS IN THE PAST OR YOUR BUSINESS IS GOING THROUGH VERY BIG TROUBLE RIGHT NOW. BY MEANS OF THIS QUESTIONS THAT WILL MAKE YOU THINK, YOU WILL COME TO SEE WHY YOUR BUSINESS FAILED OR WHY IT IS GOING THROUGH MANY TROUBLES NOW.

Let us see one reason why most small businesses in Nigeria failed.

 In this continent, some people usually say that their failure is caused by one of their wicked uncles. A woman sometime early this year, lost her necklace. And the next thing she said was “wicked people will not let me be o, What have I done to deserve this?”. And one of the listeners tactfully ask her; Madam o, who are the wicked people? She said wicked people in the village naa. Ahaa! You hear people saying this every day.
  And unfortunately, this thinking has been given more power by the religious leaders. They will tell you; ooh! Your father’s second wife is behind this and that.

 Let me tell you one hard truth, that is if you are ready to hear it.

You probably caused the downfall of your business.

Some businesses were already a failure even before they start.

You don’t understand, right? Ok , I will make you understand.

 Now let us paint a picture of a street. Let’s call the street Oriental Street.

Oriental Street has 18 face-me-I- face you building.

Most of the people living in this street are low income earners.

Some are brick layers, agberos, taxi drivers and men working as security men in companies.

 The closest market to this street is 35minutes walk away.

Now tell me please. What business will grow in this environment?

I want you to answer this question base on the fact that, you don’t sell what you want to sell, you sell what your environment want to buy. That is one of the key rule in business. Now answer.

If you begin to sell women rapper in oriental street, will it move? Will people buy? Will the business be able to provide money for shop rent the following year? Remember that a business is a business, if and only if, it can pay for your shop rent, pay for your transportation and at least your one time meal daily. So if you open women rapper business in oriental, can it take care of all of these? If the business fail, will you ask God why me? Will you begin to point at your father’s second wife as the one responsible for your failure?

What if you begin to sell life chicken? Will people buy? Well, I will say yes. But how many chickens do you think you will sell in this street in a whole month? How many of them will afford to bring out #1,500 for chicken alone? Low income earners o.

What if you choose to open a barbing salon in this street? Or maybe you don’t know how to barb, You can open and employ someone and agree on how much he will be giving you in a week. Do you think that will work? Why not. Do you think the business will be able to pay for the shop rent? Of course. Don’t forget, we are talking about 18 face-me-i-face-you buildings. But don’t you think it will be far better to learn how to barb and then run the business yourself? Exactly what I think.

What if you begin to sell akara (beans cake) and fried yam in the evenings?  Do you think you will make it? Of course. 

What if you begin to sell wine in oriental street? Will people buy? You remember the calibers of people living in this street, right? Brick layers, taxi drivers and Agberos. This set of people, do they drink wine? Infact, agberosi ,taxi drivers and even brick layers don’t drink wine, they drink kaikai. So if you open wine shop in oriental street and the business fail, will you blame your God? Will you  blame people in your village?

So, since  Agberos, taxi drivers and even brick layers like to drink kaikkai, why not start kaikai business? You will sell of course.

Since market is a bit far, you can begin to sell #50 crayfish, #50 okro, #20 palm oil, #50 dry fish and all that. Don’t you think you will make customers?

So the bottom line is that most businesses failed because they were wrongly sited or let’s  call it wrong location. Where you are supposed to sell children wears, you are selling motto parts. Where you are supposed to sell goat meat, you are selling dog meat. How will you grow? Have you now seen that some business failed even before they were started?

 We  Shall bring you many more examples in the near future. I will sugest you please submit your email address so that you can be notified each time we have something new.