Starting In a Business In Nigeria

When I first decided I wanted to start a fashion label, the first thing that ran through my mind was not the many nitty-gritty of owning a business. (Maybe that should have been a warning sign to me.) As someone who spent a whole year going through a MSc. in Management programme, perhaps I should have known better than to assume that owning a fashion label is about just sewing clothes. 

The truth is that as a failed entrepreneur, I have come to realise that no amount of business school training can prepare you for the reality of running a start-up. Business school classes train you to look at business from a point of maturity onward. Unless you are in an entrepreneurship track, most business school graduates are only familiar with models that deal with companies that are established and beyond the initial shaky phases. A start-up, by its very nature, is an unstable entity that has a multitude of challenges that only a dedicated and passionate entrepreneur can lead into a state of maturity. That process of quelling fires and celebrating barely break-through moment can really be exhilarating and character-building. 

The truth about entrepreneurship is that it is often more than just the initial concepts you have. As a matter of fact, most businesses that survive beyond the initial start-up phase are not based solely on the concepts with which they were born. Start-ups often evolve in other to remain successful. The concept is really just the face for the business, it is what people see when they look at your work. The actual work is in the engine that powers the face. The engine is what makes everything light up and look all glitzy.

Glitz is often what attracts people to owning their own business. They see people who appear not to answer to anybody else. They see money flowing in and the endless potential for growth. What they don't see is the empty bank account despite pulling in massive sales the other night. They don't see the human resources nightmare of trying to find a reliable employee that is trust-worthy and has the needed skills to get the job done. They don't see the customer service nightmare that arises when you can't fulfill an order because everything that is beyond your control is going wrong.

My job on this blog is to help you through every step of your journey as an entrepreneur. I want to be there as you decide if business ownership is a right path for you. I want to be a source of inspiration by bringing you stories, from near and far, on those that are making it. I want to cover stories on failures so you can recognise pitfalls in your own business.  I want to be a teacher by telling you what I wished knew before I jumped into bed with my first business. I want to be for you, as a Nigerian entrepreneur, what I wished I had during my teething days as an entrepreneur.

Feel free to leave a comment on things you wish would be covered on this blog and I would try my best to get it done.