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| Muideen Adebayo Ibrahim |
“You may have great business ideas but if you never take any action on them, you have nobody but yourself to blame.”
Evan Carmichael
Elder Kim Woo Chog, Chairman of the Dawoo Corporation posited in his book entitled; “Every Street is Paved with Gold” that “He recognized the possibilities of making money everywhere.”
To me, he made that statement because his company, Dawoo Corporation was ranked 45th largest conglomerate in the world few years ago and his company was involved in many areas of endeavours such as; manufacturing of electronics, cars, refrigerators, ship building, building construction and so on and so forth. He saw opportunities and turned them into cool money.
In Nigeria, Aliko Dangote is now the richest Black Man in the world. He started his empire with a loan of N500, 000.00 from his uncle and now worth Sixteen Billion Dollars ($16.1B) as stated in his Biography, “the Biography of the richest Black person in the world.”
Jim Ovia, a Nigerian entrepreneur started his banking business from a humble beginning and now worth several billion of dollars.
Who says you too cannot be richer and better than Dangote, Elder Kim Woo Chog and Jim Ovia amongst others if you harness the opportunities around you? What you need to do is to awaken the entrepreneur spirit in you!
I decided to write on business ideas based on popular demand and also due to the fact that aspiring entrepreneurs are often faced with what type of business they can venture into.
How can you get business ideas? The way and manner you can generate or get superb business ideas are critically examined infra and what you need most is ‘paradigm shift’:
Passion: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defined passion as a very strong feeling of love, hatred, anger, enthusiasm etc. Kindly note that passion is a deep, abiding love for a person, place or thing. Passion is when you wake up in the morning with thoughts of your passion on your mind. You live and dream of your passion.
I want to ask you, what do you have passion for? Please, think about it critically and your response or what you have passion for could be your God ordained business and this may be what you can venture into and make you an instant rich person.
Self Discovery: You need to do soul searching and self discovery and this could also lead or guide you to generate good business ideas for yourself. The unfortunate thing is that most people have not discovered themselves. So going forward, endeavour to meditate at least thirty minutes daily and you will discover yourself soonest.
Inspiration: You can also generate great ideas and discover the business you can venture into through inspiration either at a retreat or place of worship. God can speak to you during your inspirational moment. Though God speaks to us most of the time but most of us are not conscious of that because we have not trained ourselves for that. Kindly train yourself so that you will be able to tap from the power above at all times.
Tap into Opportunities: Covid-19 Pandemic is actually a disaster but it brought a lot of opportunities with it and some people taped into them and are now stinking rich. So many people have actually become very rich since the Covid-19 Pandemic broke out. So why don’t you think outside the box and tap into those opportunities. Whilst you are seeing crisis some people are seeing opportunities and making cool money. The shares of Zoom has gone up since the pandemic broke out because as people and corporate organizations now observe social distancing, they now hold their meetings via Zoom and it is the covid-19 pandemic that has made Zoom popular. You need to identify opportunities and you can really identify that through the SWOT Analysis (Opportunities, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). Sam Adeyemi in his book ‘Start With What You Have’ stated “that when you develop the attitude of seeing possibilities in everything, you will realize that you may not need all the money in the world to get started on the road to financial success.”
Needs: What are the needs in your environment or locality? These are the things that are very essential that you think that can sell very well if you dabble into them. Please think very well and you will get a good business idea from your environment. When MTN came to Nigeria, they saw gold and opportunities because Nigerians are in dire need of telephone service. Today MTN make more money in this country than in South Africa. When MTN and others came to Nigeria, people needed telephone because it was beyond the reach of common man then but today, every Tom, Dick and Harry is using telephone and that is money for those GSM companies. Kindly note that people actually see gold on our streets in this country whereas, an average Nigerian see nothing because they have not trained themselves on creative thinking. Not only that, an average Nigerian is not positive minded and we have what is known as ‘locked in thinking’.
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, our needs are classified as; “Physiological Needs, Security, Social Needs, Esteem and Self Actualization.” For example, you can study the Physiological Needs critically or any other section and get a very good business idea from same. Please, put on your thinking cap now!
Nature: If you really love nature you can actually start a Flower business. In Kenya, some people are into flower business and they are making cool money because they export the flowers to advanced counties. As one of the world’s biggest flower producers, flower farms in Kenya have made a name for themselves as pace-setters in the floriculture industry. Producing bespoke blooms seems to be the main agenda of such farms in the country, and all we can do is applaud them for putting Kenya on the map as a top flower exporter. Read more on www.tuko.co.ke. There are so many big Farms in Kenya that are into just Flower cultivation (floriculture). Whilst there are so many people in Nigeria who love tendering to flowers and plants and they are doing very well as horticulturists. Why don’t you take action and key into floriculture or horticulture?
Technology: It is now an established fact that the importance of technology cannot be over emphasized and there is so much room in the technological space. So the ball is in your court. The quest for technology has made a lot of people to come out with gadgets that will make life more meaningful for human beings. Gone are the days of land line telephones and what is in vogue now is android phones.
The development of Email has rendered post office redundant. Whilst Orville and Wilbur Wright (Wright Brothers) invented aeroplane to replace the use of camel and /or horse for long distance. The point I am making here is that you can think outside the box and come out with a superior technology that will make life more meaningful for human beings and you are on your way to make cool money and have fame in the world by writing your name in gold.
Creativity: More often than not, generating great business ideas requires creative thinking. How creative are you? If you are not creative, endeavour to develop your creative tendencies as well as innate abilities and you will be surprised the quantum of business ideas that you will generate. Kindly note that creativity lies in everyone and it is in you as well! With creativity, you will be able to ‘think outside the box’, generate great business ideas and move from ground zero to a higher level. Please, take action now!!!
Dream Big: One of the things that you can do effortlessly and without spending a dime (kobo) is to Dream and Dream Big! Dreaming Big will not cost you a dime so why don’t you indulge in the habit of dreaming big. There is actually power in great dreams and it will not cost you anything. The moment you cultivate the habit and culture of dreaming big, business ideas will be coming to your way. Hence, get a pad and writing material ready at all times in order to note the various ideas.
Self Confidence: It is quite unfortunate that a lot of people do not believe in themselves and as a result, they have not been able to generate business ideas. As a matter of fact, you must have self confidence and this will propel you to have the confidence and zeal that you that yes, you too can generate great ideas because nobody brought ides from heaven.
After you might have generated ideas, there is need for you to filter your ideas, rank them in order of priority and then choose the best one which you will turn into money.
By the special grace of God, I will discuss various types of business opportunities you can tap into next week.
So keep the dream alive! Success shall be yours!
Never Give Up!!
See You at the TOP!!!
It is well!
Muideen Adebayo Ibrahim is an entrepreneur: the Founder, LIBRA CONSULTING; a Management Consultancy Firm and BAMIB RESOURCES (a Premium Pencil Company) based in Lagos and can be reached via muideenibrahim2004@yahoo.com or 08037221517 (sms) only please!
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