#BUSINESS My Struggles as An Online Entrepreneur!

There are no gainful employments in Nigeria… 

That’s no longer news; actually, a Primary 6 student is aware of that fact. Despite these challenge, Nigeria youths are rising up to the challenge by creating Jobs for ourselves. Following the recent world trend we are are embracing E-Commerce. As beautiful as the concept of E-commerce is, certain factors can serve as a hindrance to its growth in Nigeria vis-viz Africa. And honestly, I am getting tired.  

I decided to carry out a little researched carried out in the Central Part of Lagos Mainland Surulere to be precise, over 50 of the Online Stores within that area had a major challenge with Logistics.

Before I share my own story, hear is what I observed from other budding entrepreneurs like me.

One of the Business Owners I interviewed simply known as Jude confessed that he couldn’t use courier services because they are too expensive, he would rather get an in-house errand personnel who makes the deliveries to several parts of Lagos. According to him, after about 6 months, he discovered that majority of his customers complained about the LATE delivery of items order for. This was because, although his in-house errand personnel knew Lagos well, he couldn’t easily locate the Residence of certain clients who live in secluded parts of Lagos. After 6 months, he discovered that her client based reduced drastically.

Another Start Up entrepreneur who has an Online Boutique complained that although she worked with a Courier service, she realized that after 12 months, she couldn’t Break Even. Majority of her Profit was being used to service the courier service, hereby affecting other key areas of her online boutique.

Funke who is into printing also complained that due to the nature of her Job, she has not been able to fully expand. Because she can’t afford to tell her clients stories, she takes the printed fliers, banners, business cards, magazines and stuffs, directly to the customers herself. In doing this, her office operations are put on hold until she returns. With the unpredictable nature of Lagos roads, she sometimes doesn’t get back to the office that day.

After listening to the Logistics Challenges faced by these persons, I knew that indeed there is a major problem. On my part as Food Vendor, I discovered that I couldn’t effectively manage the process of delivering food myself. My company bought a Bike and for a while it seemed like all was good, but as we expanded I realized that we couldn’t get to all our clients effectively. We needed more bikes; we also needed to improve on our menu and many other things. Over time, I realize my business was losing focus.

As I speak to you now, I really don’t know the way forward.