Mini importation business in Nigeria is simply known as buying goods and importing them at a lower price, then selling them for a higher price. Importing a product and selling them can be another way of making money in Nigeria. When it comes to a mini importation business, establishing a good relationship & setting up shipping should be your major concern.
When you import items and resell them, you should think of profit and not loss. However, that’s why you need to understand its basics before getting started.
Get started on your way of starting a mini importation business by taking the below steps:
How To Start A Mini Importation Business In Nigeria
- Choose A Niche
- Come Up With A Business Plan
- Conduct A Market Research
- Improve Your Business Plan
- Raise Capital For Your Business
- Find A Supplier
- Promote And Market Your Product
1. Choose A Niche
What type of products or items do you want to specialize in? This is one of the questions to ask yourself. This is because there are lots of hot selling products in Nigeria. However, it is now left for you to take a decision. Some of the products include Shoes, clothing, jewelry, phone accessories, etc.
2. Come Up With A Business Plan
A plan mostly is a guide away from failure. A business plan guides you through the journey of knowing and identifying relevant, irrelevant, and excesses. After all, growing a business is a process, it is never an immediate achievement. Therefore, a good plan from the start gives you clear visions, confidence, and focus.
There are two methods of writing your business plan, the traditional business plan method, and the lean business plan.
The traditional business plan: This is mostly used or needed by a detailed business owner or investor, this is mostly the best option as it is detailed. The traditional business plan contains:
√ Business name
√ Your mission statement
√ Your services
√ Your business leadership team
√ Your employees
√ Where your business is located.
√ Your Target market
√ Your Market Analysis
√ Your SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Oppositions Threats) Analysis
√ Your Organisation and management structure with a chart if possible
√ Marketing and sales strategy
√ Funding requirements and duration
√ Business yielding Potentials
√ Credit Histories
√ Permits that would be required
√ Licenses that would be required
The lean business plan method: This is a direct-to-the-point type of business plan, it contains:
√ Mission Statement
√ Major Partnerships
√ Resources that would be used to create services
√ SWOT (Strength Weaknesses Oppositions Threats) Analysis
√ Sales and Marketing Strategy
√ Target Market
√ Revenue Streams
3. Conduct A Market Research
You must understand the system of your market because you will be needing it. First and foremost, understanding your market gives you a great insight into what the value you are providing is worth, it’s target and the competition.
Additionally, you can conduct market research on the strength and weaknesses of other mini importation business entrepreneurs, what you are going to do differently or what you are going to improve on to provide a better service. What you need to make the difference or improvements, what it will cost you to startup. During your market analysis, you take a SWOT analysis of your business.
4. Improve Your Business Plan
With the knowledge from your market analysis, you improve your business plan, let go of the excesses and add to the plan the necessities to be the shift in the market. This stage in starting your mini importation business can be regarded as the final plan stage.
At this point, a clearer picture of your business and a modification of your mission statement is done. So as you go about putting things in order, you have a clear perception of what you are doing.
5. Raise Capital For Your Business
As there are several means of raising capital, a lot of negative information is out there about taking a loan. Taking a loan depends on the business plan and structure, if you are confident enough about the potential of your business, a loan is no bad idea.
LOAN: Loan is a certain amount of money lent to you by the bank over years and the interest rate and monthly payments are fixed in terms.
Other ways to raise capital include:
√ Personal Savings: The money you have put aside to start a business. This is not gotten from anyone else but you.
√ Selling stock of your business: This refers to liquidating your asset for money. Your investor buys the share and gives you cash, most times it is advisable you keep over 50% of your stock as the investor has the exclusive right to re-sell his share and that might affect your ownership of your business. The highest shareholder is the owner of the business. These are the things to consider when starting a business.
√ Partnership: You partner with someone or an organization of like minds. Where the other party who contributes to the capital is given a percentage. In partnership, they share in the profit as well as the loss which would mostly be aligned to their contribution of capital and overall growth of the business.
√ Sponsorship: You can write a business proposal to individuals, organizations, or companies. If validated and approved, these individuals, organizations, and companies will raise the capital. In this case, they may not be interested in any percentage of the profit but might be requiring a steady report on the growth process. On the other hand, they may require a given percentage (most times a little percentage. for Example, Non-governmental organizations) but will not take part in the loss of the business.
√ Friends and Family: This is contributions from close relatives and friends. it could be a place to start, it could be facilities but mostly cash. The business owes no obligations to these persons.
6. Find A Supplier
Now that you are fully ready, look for a reliable supplier to buy your products from. To do this, you can use online directories to find a supplier or you can as well find potential suppliers through other buyers’ reviews, recommendations, and ratings. Additionally, make a list of the suppliers who can provide you with your item.
You can begin investigations by knowing how they accept payments and mostly the quality of their products. After all, is set and done, you can begin placing orders. Also, check their basic shipping agreement. Most importantly, consider using escrow services for payment, this might help in preventing fraud.
Don’t make any payment to a bank account that is not registered under the same name of the supplier (company) you are buying from. Otherwise, you will lose your money. That is why escrow service is highly recommended.
It is compulsory, that you use the correct contact details because once your product arrives you will be contacted or notified by the logistic/shipping company.
7. Promote And Market Your Business
We are a most fortunate generation with the internet, where almost everything is possible including Promoting and marketing your business. Key effective ways are:
Make Videos: The selling means of advertising your services is video making. The video first should be short but detailed. If you cannot deal with the creative, you hire the services of a content creator an accurate one at that.
Make Reviews: You can render your service to some persons for free or a little token, and get honest reviews from them. They would spread the word for you.
Social Media Ads: Run Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter Ads. For this, you would be needing a good copywriter. This would bring your business to the limelight, people from all works of life would see it and a good percentage of these people will click on it.
Have A Website: A website properly developed with a very good user interface and an articulated blog post, where potential customers can come and know everything about your service is necessary, so when you run these Ads, it takes your potential customers to your website and expose them really to your services.
Create Business Social Media Handles: Create business social media handles separate from your handle, post your services daily, and have a social media manager who has great skills in copywriting or content creation. You ask for honest reviews from customers and re-post on your social media handles. This will encourage and boost the confidence of other potential customers.
Collaborations: When bigger industries are hosting events and call for sponsorship or partnership, this is a good strategy to sell your services as you will be featured either as a partner or as a sponsor, as much as this might bring about financial responsibilities, it can also be as free and simple as volunteering, it can also be donating assets that can be gotten back after the event.
Offline Advertisement: You can promote your business offline through word of mouth, sharing your business card, billboards, and flyers. Offline advertisement is one of the best ways to promote your business & reach your potential customers (target market).
Cost Of Starting A Mini Importation In Nigeria
Depending on how you want to structure your mini importation business we may not determine. But on a low startup with ₦200,000 you can start successful mini importation business in Nigeria.
If at all possible, it’s best to pay someone who is in the same line of business to teach you how you can start your own mini importation business practically. This will help you get more sense of how well this business is operated. If you decide to follow this route, it will provide a better opportunity for you to become an expert within a short period.