How to move from Money collectors (Salary) to becoming Money #Creators (Business) in Nigeria
How to move from Money collectors (Salary) to becoming Money #Creators (Business) in Nigeria
Having your own business can be incredibly rewarding. Even though it may be a lot tasking, the fact remains that you will be your own boss. No matter how much your salary pays you, it still doesn’t make you financially independent. Your salary can pay your debt, and take care of your needs, but that is just the end. You don’t gain financial stability while working a salary job alone, especially in a country like Nigeria.
When you own your business, you get to decide what happens there. Although, you may have business partners, or investors, but the fact still remains that the business is yours, and you make the most of the decisions. Business owners have a control over their time, this doesn’t mean you’re lazy and go to work when you want to, but you have time for other things. You can plan your time, based on your own schedule, not someone else’s.
It is not just about jumping into starting a business, there are few things you must be aware of before you start. You must know how it runs, so you don’t end up worse than when you had a salary job. So if your are planning on moving from a salary earner to a business and money creator, here are some life hacks that will guide you to do so without being hurt.
- Don’t quit your paid employment first, instead start a business and then quit.
You don’t have to replace your salary straight away. You must create a repeatable way to generate value for others. That way, all you have to do is multiply your efforts (not find out what the formula is) after leaving your paid job. Allow the business to settle first before you quit your salary job. Be sure that the business can pay for your needs. In fact, if your business isn’t generating as much as your salary, then you shouldn’t quit the job just yet.
This is where most first time business owners miss it, they have a business idea and the first thing they do is to quit their job. It doesn’t work that way. Continue working your salary job, use the salary to run your business, and when you’re sure that the business can stand on its own, then you can decide to quit the job to face the business full time.
- Surround yourself with people that already have a business.
No one is an island of knowledge. You might have a great business idea, but some people have been in it before you decided to start. Seek advice from them. Ask them questions about where they failed, how they overcome it and how they run their businesses generally. You don’t have to learn from your own mistakes, you can learn from the experience of others.
You can also do this online via podcasts, blogs, and books, but it only counts if you actually select one person and follow exactly what they say. Most of us end up looking at 100 people, ending up with a hodge-podge of contradicting information to nowhere, rather, focus on a niche and a mentor at a time. You can learn from many sources, but following one person will help you.
How to move from Money collectors (Salary) to becoming Money #Creators (Business) in Nigeria
- Don’t start a startup, start a business.
There is nothing wrong in starting small. All great businesses you see today, started small. You great ideas won’t make sense if they don’t work. Instead of focusing on a “great idea” that you came up with in the shower, go straight to the market, research forums, contact your target customers, study your competitors. Know what is needed and what you should focus on. If what you sell is not needed, nobody will buy.
It is not just about starting something, it is largely about providing what customers need. And you must also understand that, you won’t be the first to come up with such idea, so you must know what to do differently to make people prefer your products to others.
Read Also: 10 things to consider before starting a business and investing in Nigeria
- Starting a business is not a decision that will affect you only.
Taking this huge step of quitting your salary job to run your own business won’t affect you alone in the long run. You must put the people that will be affected (stakeholders) into consideration before making that decision. You don’t suddenly wake up and decide to start a business. You have to carefully reason it out with people in your life.
The reason most people become entrepreneurs is to give more to the people around them. So you need to get crystal clear with the important people in your life about what you want to achieve, the potential difficulties on the way, and how both success and challenges will affect your lives. Take people on a journey with you: it will create stronger bonds that supports everyone involved.
How to move from Money collectors (Salary) to becoming Money #Creators (Business) in Nigeria
- Realize that once you leave your job to start a business, your lifestyle choices and path will stray from what the majority chooses.
Actually, that’s why you started a business in the first place. Remind yourself that you chose to play a different game, and surround yourself with people that have the same ambitions, values, and goals as you do. You will no more get to operate the way you did when you were a salary earner. Now, you’re in charge of other people. You make the bulk of the decisions now, and you must be careful with that.
Contrary to what people think, this is the time that you need to work hard the most. This is the time when mediocrity is not allowed if you want the business to succeed. When you were a salary earner, you just follow orders day in, day out. But now that you own the business, you’re in charge of giving the orders. And your orders have to be ones that will improve the business, not bring it down.
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(B.Agric, MBA)
08105636015, 08076359735
Serial Entrepreneur - International Business Planning Consultant - Speaker - Trainer - Author - Blogger - Network Marketing professional.
- 2018 SME Business Trainer and Coaching Advisor at GIZ for SME Loop.
- 2018 YALI RLC Online Cohort 9
- 2017 Fellow, Inspire Africa Train-the-Trainer Entrepreneurship programme sponsored by US Consulate Lagos and the Dickey Center, U.S.A.
- 2016 Fellow, Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme
- 2015 Top 50 Innovative Entrepreneurs, BET5 by Diamond Bank and EDC, PAU.
He is an alumnus of Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan-Atlantic University (PAU). Through his training, mentoring, speaking and coaching programmes, he has empowered many young people over the years to start and grow their own business, build wealth, create multiple streams of income and achieve financial independence.
- He is a Certified Trainer in Design Thinking by the U.S Consulate, Lagos and the inspire Africa Entrepreneurship Institute.
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