Kusnap Nigeria Entrepreneurial School

Considering Factors to Buying a Car in Nigeria

Buying a car in Nigeria today is considered a display of comfort and wealth. This is because of the current economic situation of the country, where there is an outstretched demand for necessities than a luxury. Nevertheless, the reason behind buying a car in Nigeria is relative. It could be factored in as either a necessity, comfort, or luxury. Regardless of these demand types, one peculiar thing is that buying a car could be stressful without putting some factors into good consideration. These factors help in ensuring the process of buying a car is of zero hassle.

Here are the key factors that must be considered before approaching a car dealer to buy a car in Nigeria.

Budget

This is the primary factor to be guided with when planning to buy a car. This is because buying a car involves a considerable financial capacity, which is not limited to only car purchase but after-purchase, which is car maintenance. Hence, your budget is of great priority.

For instance, most Toyota cars are targeted towards low-income to middle-income earners, while most Mercedes Benz cars are targeted towards high-income earners.

As earlier said, the budget is not only made for buying a car, but the maintenance cost needs to be included when considering buying a car. Generally, the maintenance cost of a Mercedes Benz car is higher than that of a Toyota car.

Price Comparison

It is important to put a wide range of prices for a particular car into consideration before making the final purchase. Across all car dealer shops in Nigeria, prices of cars vary, and which gives you the opportunity of going around to have an overview of the prices of an intended car from different car dealers. Making comparisons and finding an average price of all collected prices helps in making good decisions before making the final purchase of a car.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders in the automobile industry are persons with requisite knowledge of cars. So it is important to consult this person before making the final decision of buying a car. In Nigeria, a first-time car user is bound to involve a friend, family member, or mechanic who can serve as a guide to buying a good car at a, well,negotiable price.

6 PROVEN WAYS TO RUN A DATA-DRIVEN BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

As a business owner in Nigeria or outside the country, making decisions based on data is crucial if you want to be ahead of your competitors. If your decision making is not based on data, that means it's based on assumptions and flowing with the tide – which is dangerous for the growth of your business. The word "data" can be intimidating if you're not a number person or if you're just a startup working on getting hold of what business is all about.

Data is mostly composed of numbers, and these numbers friend is the key to making informed decisions that'll see your business thrive.

Serious-minded business owners run data-driven brands, while regular business owners run their business based on assumptions.

Which type of business owner do you want to be?

According to statistics, a significant number of businesses are not data literate – which means they run their business one day at a time.

If you're reading this, that means you're one decision away from being among the serious-minded business owners who make decisions based on data and information.

If you're convinced that you want to be, here are six proven ways to get you started with owning and running a data-driven business in Nigeria.

Data is presented to us every day in every activity and interaction we have with our customers. Knowing the data that's available and what you have to collect is the first step to using data to make informed decisions.

While some data sources are distinct, others are not. Let's say you operate a business where customers get to write down their names, address, time of purchase, and goods purchased, you're getting these data directly to your database. On the other hand, when you run Facebook Ads or sit down to evaluate your typical customers, there are less obvious data sources you might not notice. These non-obvious data sources include who's buying from you or clicking your Ads, where they are coming from, and what's their gender, social class, etc.

You can make it a conscious duty to collect a particular type of data and make decisions based on these data. When you're collecting data intentionally, you have the insight needed to beat your competitors in the game.

Benefits of Internet Marketing over Traditional Retailing

Internet marketing has been able to transform the principle of buying and selling through internet growth and technological advancement. There have been huge benefits for internet marketing over traditional retailing regarding customer interaction. Also, social media played a pivotal role in this benefit. Internet marketing with an e-commerce website makes it possible for businesses to deploy a brilliant money-making strategy with zero stress and limitations.

Consumers are increasingly making the internet their best choice of buying decisions and which in turn is making internet marketing more important. According to Statista, 1.66 billion people shop online every year. Also, consumers are known to rely on the preliminary research conducted on mobile, the internet, and social media before making the final decisions on price and products.

What is internet marketing?

Internet marketing is the process of promoting a brand or business with its products and services on the internet, using tools like search marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, mobile advertising, and display advertising that help in driving traffic, generating leads, and improving sales. According to Statista (2018), 12% of all retail sales globally were made from e-commerce.

What is traditional retailing?

Traditional retailing is the process of having a small-to medium-scale business to serve the needs or wants of people patronizing a store/shop in a physical setting. Traditional retailing is also called the “unorganized” retail sector.

So having described these two concepts, what are the benefits of internet marketing over traditional retailing?

Challenges Facing Small and Medium Sized Businesses

Through the diverse experiences of investors, entrepreneurs, and merchants who have work experience across different sectors in the MSME, there is no reasonable doubt that there are clearer perspectives on some of the vital challenges that stand in the way of Micro, small, and medium enterprise. Some of these problems are general and applies all over the world, while others are restricted to specific geographical locations.

The different kinds of challenges to MSMEs are risks that have totally obliterate different businesses, or fatally paralyzed many which hardly recover from the fall. This article will provide you with the most crucial challenges which may be a huge blow to your business of not avoided or solved on time. It will also consider the different impacts which the COVID-19 has had, and the changes it is bringing into the financial sector.

The biggest challenges facing Micro, Small, and medium businesses in the industrial sector includes:

· Leadership

· Culture

· Strategy

· Having the right team

· Strategy Execution

· Making the business unique

· Systems and Processes

· Productivity

· Performance gauging

Subsequently, we will discuss each of these challenges by trying to figure out how and why they are a challenge, the risks they pose to MSMEs on a general level, as well as in a well defined environment. It is important to take note of the reasons why these challenges can be a risk for business, and the ways which they can negatively affect the business of not avoided or eliminated. This will keep entrepreneurs at alert to the possible ways to handle such challenges when they arise.

Leadership

This is one of the biggest challenges that may be a risk for any king of business, organization, and entity; not just for MSMEs. While other kinds of businesses may require people who have vast experience in a particular field, or company to take up leadership positions, this is not the case in MSMEs. Because MSMEs are usually personal, small scale business, the sole proprietors of the business usually assume responsibilities and has the highest position.

As such, being a leader in an MSME does not require any academic qualifications or prior experience in chosen venture. If there were any course on leadership for small and medium scale business, merchants and entrepreneurs would most likely pass on the chance to take it. However, the lack of the required skills to deal with people and challenges which the business can run into can be catastrophic.

There is also a mounting belief that leaders are born with the natural skills to lead people or entities; if you are not a born leader, you shouldn’t take a leadership role. That is not entirely true. While most leaders who take front roles in many business organizations might naturally have leadership skills in leading people, it can also be acquired.

There are lots of influential books about leadership in business which will definitely enlighten merchants about the concept of leadership. These books will equip merchants with the right skills and abilities to make the difference in your team.

Car Maintenance in Nigeria

Cars can be translated with a different meaning to different people. For some people, cars are luxury items to showcase the wealth and social status, while to others they are necessities to enable easy mobility or even generate income.

Regardless of the categories that people might fall in, it is important to have a proper maintenance culture in terms of basic car maintenance checklist towards cars to enhance aesthetics and guarantee optimum performance. Broadly speaking, car maintenance determines a car’s efficiency and effectiveness, which goes a long way to keeping the car in good and durable conditions.

What is Car Maintenance?

Car maintenance is the process of having a comprehensive check and safety precautions on cars’s parts and function to enable its proper operation.

Types of Car Maintenance Tips in Nigeria

Here are some car-maintenance tips that must always be put into consideration on how to maintain a car in good condition and prevent ourselves from lurking dangers.

Fix Car Problems Immediately

Procrastination is a robber of time and a killer of dreams. This applies to maintaining a car, such that putting early signs of fault to a check tends to prevent the incident of a complete vehicular breakdown or even car crash. Car problems are not spontaneous, as they don’t just pop up. Therefore, the smartest way of adhering to a car-maintenance culture is paying attention to early signs of the fault before growing into a serious problem that might even cost you more to fix.

Keep Fluids Clean

It is important to always have clean fluids flowing through all pipes in the car and topping up these fluids is also necessary. These fluids include brake fluid, engine oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, air conditioning coolant, washer fluid, and radiator fluid.

Engine oil is essential to keep all the moving parts of the car lubricated. Also, it must be ensured that the different fluid levels do not go low to the extent of posing problems to the overall functionality of the car.

5 BIG QUESTIONS THAT’LL HELP YOU DETERMINE YOUR BRAND’S PURPOSE

Branding is one issue every entrepreneur must face at one point in a business or another. The challenge arises because the entrepreneur will try to figure out the best way to relate to the audience to persuade them to not only choose you over your competitors but also to make you a household name. Though there are different books on business branding on the internet, there’s always this feeling that something is missing.

Every entrepreneur believes they have the best ideal and product, but the problem is always how to get the brand to connect with the desired audience.

Let’s say this entrepreneur is you, and you’re wondering why you can’t connect with your target market.

What might be the issue?

It traces down to one thing.

Being effective at selling is nearly impossible without having a remarkable brand.

You might have the best product and offer mouthwatering packages, but if you can’t communicate the actual value of your brand, you won’t succeed.

Communicating your real value can only be achieved when you understand your purpose.

A purpose is something that your company strives to achieve that’s beyond selling more products or delivering more services

· It makes your brand remarkable.

· It makes you easy to identify with and

· It makes your brand hard to be forgotten.

For you to achieve all these, you need to communicate to your audience that your company is much more than just the profit. You need to show that you have a larger purpose.

How Businesses Can Scale the Imapct of COVID-19

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the lockdown, many businesses across the country endured one of the worst periods. Regardless of how a business is set up, many today need to review their operations and reevaluate how the business operates.

As things are slowly returning to normal most businesses have been unable to keep up with the new business market they find themselves. This is mostly due to inability of entrepreneurs to keep the financial wheels of their business turning during and after the lockdown.

The effects of the pandemic is much more devastating on startups and MSMEs mostly due to the fact that the financial reserve of such businesses are so small. As a result, they are unable to manage the fallout of this scale. The ripple effect of this shutdown has had a key impact on Nigeria’s economy, as all business sectors get affected resulting in low revenue generation due to an eventual halt/slump on the sale of products and/or services.

So, during such testing times, startup entrepreneurs will have to adapt to a new set of rules and be mindful of the following aspects to alleviate risks and to survive the slowdown caused by the impact of COVID19.

Tracking expenses against the revenue status

In this Post-Covid-19 period, one of the most important things to consider in business today is to carry out a thorough assessment of all forms of expenses, and also the total income generated. Doing this will provide a good estimate of the position of the company on a financial level. Knowing the financial position of the company, entrepreneurs can make proper plans until when everything is normalized.

Reviewing the feasibility of Existing business model

Since the occurrence of the pandemic, there has been a constant change in the market. And we all know it is not for good. As a result, we can all agree that it is time to review existing business model in terms of projections concerning revenue and expenses. Tracking financial metrics and cash flow cannot be lagging in this period considering how unpredictable the market has become. As such, entrepreneurs should review how much of an impact the pandemic has had on new sales, collections, debts, and so on.

Plan policies for Future

Provided it is still quite unclear how long it is going to take for the market and business industry to recover, entrepreneurs should make plans for all possible scenarios and outcomes. If we consider it as a 3-month problem, an instant halt on variable expenditures like hiring, marketing, travel, etc. can help. However, if the crisis continues for 9 months to a year, entrepreneurs will have to reconfigure their business strategy to reduce the variable expenses, renegotiate fixed expenses (rent, salaries, equipment lease payments, etc.), and focus only on the crucial essentials for survival.

How to win your customers’ appreciation and loyalty in 2021

Introduction

How do you feel when people appreciate your effort or contribution towards something? Indeed, you get a blissful feeling as the act shows that you were seen.

Every human usually gets this type of feeling, and your customers are not any different. We are sure that you must have heard the phrase ‘your customer is king.’ Or, ‘customers are always right.’

As a business owner, the goal is not just getting people to buy from your brand. Now, you may be keeping a confused face wondering what the goal should be.

Instead of targeting a short-term result, why not strive for a long-term effect? Yes, a customer comes to buy what you are selling, and you are getting profit for it. But, will the customer come back?

This is where we have to mention customer loyalty programs. It should be common knowledge that people are only loyal when they are appreciated.

Customer appreciation and loyalty are vital to any business, and they go hand-in-hand. It’s the year 2021, and if you think that this is not important, you are setting your business for a fall.

It is essential to understand that you are not the only one selling a particular product. With the understanding of competitors, you will agree that you need to have the edge over them.

Suppose you sell gadgets. How do you plan to have the edge over other competitors in the same niche?

The best way to do this would be through a customer loyalty program. Therefore, helping in customer appreciation and loyalty, ensuring that the customers do not shift base to your competitors.

Here are some ways to increase customer loyalty:

Ways to win customer’s loyalty in 2021

To be reading to this point, we would assume that you agree with the concept of customer appreciation and loyalty. However, over time, we hear people say that it’s hard to gain customer’s loyalty.

One school of thought feels that humans generally have a fickle attention span. With this theory, they think that it’s hard for a customer to stick to a brand.

Car Maintenance in Nigeria

Cars can be translated with a different meaning to different people. For some people, cars are luxury items to showcase the wealth and social status, while to others they are necessities to enable easy mobility or even generate income.

Regardless of the categories that people might fall in, it is important to have a proper maintenance culture in terms of basic car maintenance checklist towards cars to enhance aesthetics and guarantee optimum performance. Broadly speaking, car maintenance determines a car’s efficiency and effectiveness, which goes a long way to keeping the car in good and durable conditions.

What is Car Maintenance?

Car maintenance is the process of having a comprehensive check and safety precautions on cars’s parts and function to enable its proper operation.

Types of Car Maintenance Tips in Nigeria

Here are some car-maintenance tips that must always be put into consideration on how to maintain a car in good condition and prevent ourselves from lurking dangers.

Fix Car Problems Immediately

Procrastination is a robber of time and a killer of dreams. This applies to maintaining a car, such that putting early signs of fault to a check tends to prevent the incident of a complete vehicular breakdown or even car crash. Car problems are not spontaneous, as they don’t just pop up. Therefore, the smartest way of adhering to a car-maintenance culture is paying attention to early signs of the fault before growing into a serious problem that might even cost you more to fix.

Keep Fluids Clean

It is important to always have clean fluids flowing through all pipes in the car and topping up these fluids is also necessary. These fluids include brake fluid, engine oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, air conditioning coolant, washer fluid, and radiator fluid.

Engine oil is essential to keep all the moving parts of the car lubricated. Also, it must be ensured that the different fluid levels do not go low to the extent of posing problems to the overall functionality of the car.

How to Develop Marketing Strategy on the Internet

There has been a tremendous paradigm shift towards internet marketing over the last few years. The great number of businesses joining the bandwagon of internet marketing with huge income coming in is a testament to this digital innovation. There are innumerable opportunities available on the internet, but it takes committed efforts and resources to make internet marketing successful.

What is internet marketing?

Internet marketing is the component of marketing that uses web-based channels to campaign a company’s brand, products, or services to its potential customers. This internet marketing strategy employed by businesses may include banner ads, Email lists, PPC (pay-per-click), and social media marketing.

Market Strategy to Develop on the Internet

Understand Your Niche

The internet has a broadband with large internet marketing field, so it is important to have a better understanding of your customer target and their wants. Many companies are known to conduct extensive consumer and market research to understand the preferences and buying behavior patterns of their target buyers. For every business, there is a target market regarding the demography of people that wants the products and services. This idea will enable you to have the best choice of keywords while using your SEO and SEM campaign.

Develop an Internet Marketing Plan

An internet marketing plan is a guide that informs all your decisions and activities at every stage of the online business. Also, the plan aids in developing and implementing better strategies with a later evaluation of the overall result of the activities. Just as the traditional marketing strategy, your internet marketing plan/strategy must highlight all the objectives and goals that must be achieved while establishing milestones in the internet business. However, it is important to have an integration of the internet marketing plan with the company’s primary business plan to ensure harmony with the business’ goal plan.

Know Your Competitors

Internet marketing has been considered competitive due to the easy way of setting up an internet business with advancements in marketing technologies. A large number of well-established businesses on the internet poses a challenge to internet marketing entrants. Knowing your competitors very well is one of the best ways to stay afloat in an internet business. This will enable you to know their strengths and weaknesses to your improved advantage.

In-depth research needs to be done where market intelligence will be conducted and information being analyzed about your competitors. Other things to put into consideration when assessing your competitors are pricing, consumer policy, products, services, and value proposition. With all these details at hand, you will be able to make good decisions and a powerful marketing campaign.