Internet home business is an exciting frontier created by the advent of the internet. It is virgin territory in Nigeria, which makes in pretty much easier to get in and quickly create a niche for yourself.
An e-commerce enabled site is a business or shop where visitors/buyer from around the globe can pop in at any hour of the day, browse through, pick items of interest and proceed to check out, pay and zoom off, all without human intervention.
The owner of the site could be sleeping, playing with his children, on vacation or in church/mosque while this is going on.
Since this activity is taking place in cyberspace, the owner does not need a shop and attendants to be in business. He can operate from his parlour or bedroom.
A home-based business is the easiest business to start, in terms of capital outlay. All you need is a table and a chair, a computer system (PII at least) and internet access. If you have light, you are in business. That's all.
You don't need to rent a shop, get a carpenter to fit out the shop, get glass doors and gazebo, burglary proof and massive padlocks. You don't need to hire a staff nor put up a sign post and be harassed by state and local government for signage levies etc (you know their wahala). You don't need to take your bath, brush your mouth, dress up and go get stuck in Lagos traffic for hours, especially during the rainy season. You can wipe the sleep off your eyes and stroll in your pyjamas
One of the great things about running an online business is that your shop is open to the international community. You will find out that you may get more visitors from the US and EU that from Nigeria. That way you are not entirely dependent on the Nigerian market, that is, if your product has worldwide appeal, and can be downloaded from your site (e.g. an e-book). This does not even matter if you advertisements on your site, you still make your money irrespective of where the visitor is coming from. People can visit your site whether it is raining or not, whether there is a strike/public holiday or not, traffic jam or not, trailer has blocked the road or not, whether you have light or not, people can enter your shop 24/7. Nobody can shut down your site (except of course you are owing your web host, or have violated the terms of service). Also, no thief can break into the shop and steal your goods, and there is no crooked staff to run away with your money. As people in the US are waking up, those in Nigeria are working while those in Australia are going to bed, so at any point in time, there is someone awake, visiting your site.
Also it is very easy to mind your online business at your spare time, and monitor/operate it from anywhere in the world. With a physical business, you will be worried if your employees will run you to the ground. With an online business, you are the only employee in the early days. If you hire someone, you can track how much they have done since everything is online, and you can have your customers pay directly to the bank so that nobody handles cash. Most payments will be done online anyway. So if you have staff but you have to travel abroad, the only thing at risk is your computers and furniture, which you can insure.
The most important thing you need to start an online business in Nigeria is your brain. Look around for opportunities, look at where there is a gap, and fill it. Because internet is relatively new in Nigeria, there are so many gaps and opportunities. What you need to take advantage of it is to learn about building a website, promoting it to get good traffic and how to make money from the traffic you have brought to your site.
Be focused. Keep your eyes on providing services, give your visitors what they want, and soon, the money will come. You will get to a stage where you can hire someone to do the hard bit while you relax and use your brain to develop more superior strategies after mastering the basics.
We will cover all these aspects in articles in this section. All you need is determination, have a goal, make a choice, take a step and pay the price. You are in business. Welcome to the world of online business.
Visit http://change-in-paradigm.blogspot.com for futher details on this
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