Dr. Olubukola Adewakun, a human capacity development expert, a Goldman Sachs Scholar, with a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management from the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) of the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos and an accreditation as a management consultant by the Center for Management Development (CMD), Lagos.

Among many other leadership roles she also serves as the General Manager of the Thriving Enterprise Development Center (TEDC), a business school that specializes in enterprise development and skills acquisition programs for both adults and youths.

In this interview with the Classic FM Radio, Lagos, monitored by Vanguard MoneyDigest, Dr. Adewakun discusses how to create and run profitable business ideas.

Excerpts

As a prospective entrepreneur, how do I decide the right business to do?

One of the major things to consider is the need in the society or your environment. You need to make sure that there is a need, or whatever that is causing a problem, wherever there’s a gap, whenever people are always complaining about something or you yourself is complaining about that particular thing then you can think of it as a business opportunity. Or it can also be something that you really like doing, something you are passionate about, something that gives you joy then you can think of it as your business, you can think of it as an idea that you can develop as a business. 

What should be the right or adequate capital for starting a business? 

For most businesses, for many businesses, the capital is not actually the first thing to consider. It’s more about do you have the right skills, do you have the knowledge and are you sure that your product or service is actually in demand; then once you have done that, thinking about how much capital, most of the time we can actually kick start a business with little or no capital, at least it is more of starting out. So, if you actually need the capital there will be some financial implications. But there’s always need for you to start small. So start small so that you don’t choke yourself; and there you then grow the business gradually. 

In a market like Nigeria it can be quite saturated. So how can I come up with a unique business idea in such a market?

At times we can say that practically everything is being done already. So it’s all about looking for how to make things better; how to improve on the process, how to make things faster, better, easier, or a more affordable, easily accessible. Those are the things that can stand your business out. So, look for which of these areas that you have, what can you do to add to that idea that might seem like everybody is doing but you do it in a unique way. Once you can deliver that service or product maybe in a better packaging, more accessible, make it available to people then you gradually stand out. Technology is also creating many new opportunities.  

If my business requires a large investment, how do I approach funding?

That means you would have explored the avenue of family and friends. Those are the first level for you to make sure you get your funding from. Then Access Bank is here. So that will be the next level. That means you would  have  built a relationship with your bankers and then gradually they will definitely support your business to expand it. 

If my area of interest does not generate so much money or none at all, what should I do? 

It depends on your financial state at the time. If that area of interest is not generating so much money, it may have the potential to still generate it over time. So while at it, it is better you get something that will generate money for you especially if you’re a family man or you have responsibilities to take care of, incase you need to survive. So there must be something that will generate the money while the business is not yet generating that and it’s not to kill the dream, it’s to keep at it. Explore different opportunities where you can showcase that. Every business has a potential somewhere where you can, it is just getting it right where it will actually get to the right persons who will pay and who values that product or service and will actually pay for it. So it is all about keeping at it. But if it’s a desperate situation you must find an alternative source of income that will keep body and soul together pending the time when the business will kick off. This normally happens to creative entrepreneurs, maybe artworks are not selling yet but you know that you have good products and will still sell it.

I think the experience for quite a number of people is that their passion may not immediately generate the money, the income that they would like. So would your advice be to perhaps concentrate on the need, as opposed to the passion?

You’ll still need skills, you will need knowledge to grow and develop your passion.  So while at it, I will advice that you look for a need that is a general that will bring in the money, then you can do that while you’re still fanning or growing your passion.

What steps can I take to validate my business idea before investing time and resources? Is there any need for market research?

There is a great need for market research, it is so important. For anyone starting a new business, it is better you test run the market. You need to know what really works and if people will actually accept that product or service because if you just jump into it without having a statistical data backing it, showing you the rate at which people buy that product or service then one is not planning well.  So there’s need for you to do it and you can get it done, even by starting with the people around you. And then gradually, if you can afford it, if you can afford an organization to conduct the market research for you depending on the level at which you are coming into. If it is basic SME, then you can test run it with people around you, friends and families around you. Get enough information to be sure that the product will be acceptable in the market.

Are there any major points to note during the market research? 

Yes. First thing, like I said, about need, if there’s a need for the product, you need to confirm if there is a need and how often, if they can easily repeat purchase for that particular product, because there are some  products that people buy one time. It may be a one time thing. So if it is a one time thing then you need to really sit down  one time to rethink the future of the business and  if you cannot really scale with that business. So you need to confirm all that. Those are key pointers to let you know that you need to know the size of the market because at times some products may cater for a very small market and if it’s not a product that that can attract premium payments, then it might not be worth going into it. So there are different factors like that you need to look into.

How do one get people to know about their business? 

So one of the lifeline of any business is marketing. So you need to get the information out there. People need to know that that service or product exists. They need to know what the product can do. So you need to package the product well, sell it. It’s easier now with the online platforms where you have the social media to showcase it. And also not neglecting the traditional media like radio, it goes a very long way in projecting in advertising your service or product. There’s real need for you to learn more about digital skills and push it, keep pushing everywhere and talk about it anywhere you go wherever you get to let people know that you have that and gradually it will become more profitable.

Would you say that a word of mouth is still the biggest form of marketing? 

I won’t say it is the biggest. It is not the biggest but it depends on your market or on what you do. I still had the discussion last week with a group of entrepreneurs. Out of the six people, for four of them word of mouth was still what was working for them. It depends on what you are selling and for majority, you will see that definitely the online platform is there. And that is where you can get the information out the most. But you know the online platform is there but if you don’t leverage it the right way then it still wouldn’t deliver the right result.

What are some of the effective ways to analyze potential competition in the market? 

Well, while doing your market research, definitely, competition will come up and so you will know all your competitors, you should have an idea of what to do, because that’s what will be pushing you to improve in every way. So, definitely you need to observe, be informed. That is with the market trends, with what is happening in your industry with  the new technologies that is being adopted by, maybe, your other competitors. You need to just keep your ears to the walls and you can achieve that via social media and also the internet generally you can leverage on that to get such information. And you may do the physical walk into a store, pick up a competitor’s product and try it out. Sometimes you find two very similar products, and you just find that one does consistently better than the other. The product, the content, the actual thing might just be exactly the same.

What do you think is the sort of leverage in the market? 

One, it might have started from perception, which is done by marketing. You get that from marketing so, maybe the first product had already gained good acceptance in the market. So that might be the issue of being the first entrant. Also if we say the two products are exactly the same, there might be some other little difference