The Nigerian economy continues to show stable growth as engine oil is been demanded daily. This has resulted in making engine oil a profitable business to start in Nigeria. This business mainly deals with supplying or selling engine oil to people. The engine oil business is good to venture into it because of the high demand for it.
Bear in mind that you must know how this business works before venturing into it. You need to know the prices of oil and also how to identify the real ones & fake ones. So it is very important to learn some certain things and be familiar with how it is been operated.
Perhaps you are curious to know how to start an engine oil business in Nigeria. In this article, you can find detailed information on the requirements and costs of starting an engine oil business in Nigeria.
How To Start An Engine Oil Business In Nigeria
1. 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
2. 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 engine oil businesses, 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.
3. 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 engine oil 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.
4. 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.
5. Find A Good Location
Location is paramount. The engine oil business has its customers. However, you can be offering the right services but with the wrong people, and this is mostly an effect of bad location and all efforts on the plan and structure will be a waste.
In choosing a location, your target market is majorly considered. You do not run an engine oil business in an area where it is not needed but in an environment where it can be accessed. The economic policy of the environment too should be considered.
6. Obtain Necessary Licenses And Permits
Registering your business is not the only guarantee you need to kick off. As a result, engine oil business have their license or permit of some sort and this is dependent on your location. Business permits regulate the structure and safety of the business community.
7. Apply For Business Insurance
For unforeseen loss and risk management, you will be needing business insurance. Business insurance protects from theft, fire, medical expenses, compensation towards workers, etc. Find a good licensed insurance agency and they would help you articulate the best insurance policy for your business.
8. Get All The Needed Equipment, Tools, And Facilities Ready
After you must have found a good location, the next option is to buy tools to furnish your shop/warehouse. And at this stage, you can decide to buy a truck that will help you in conveying your products to your customers. Though buying a truck depends on your scale of operation and how you choose to run your engine oil business.
9. Find A Supplier
Develop a good business relationship with a supplier. Once you get in contact with a supplier, negotiate the price for the engine oil supplies you need. Then stock your shop.
10. Employ Staff
A general saying “If you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go with someone”. A very important aspect of a business is employing staff. A properly trained one who have the knowledge of the engine oil business will do a greater good. Also, good training for a newbie will promise loyalty to your business.
You can not raise your business structure and do all the work and produce high efficiency, even if you do, it will take a longer time. The time that would have accomplished one or two more tasks. So, no department or aspect of your business suffers, a staff is a must. If it is a small-scale business, basically two or three for a start is enough.
11. 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 An Engine Oil Business In Nigeria
Starting an engine oil business is a great idea and based on some analysis, the cost of starting an engine oil business in Nigeria varies based on the business location and size. Irrespective of the location, a standard engine oil business can be established with a minimum of ₦3 million naira.
Conclusion
Starting an engine oil business in Nigeria is a great idea. But to get started, you should start by conducting some intense market research. This will help you decide on how to personally start your own engine oil business from scratch.
But in all things, the engine oil business is among the most profitable businesses to start in Nigeria.