Everyone says Africa is the next big thing and the land of endless opportunities. Investors, multinational corporations and entrepreneurs from across the world are swarming to Africa in their hundreds and thousands, looking for a piece of the action. But many of us, Africans, are unable to find profitable small business ideas and opportunities even though we sit on a goldmine. While there are guaranteed ways to find great business ideas in Africa, it remains a dream many people on the continent are yet to achieve. This article walks you through the paths that will lead to the discovery of excellent business ideas that could change your life forever!
Let’s find out what these three sure paths to finding great business ideas are…
Path #1 – Fix a problem: Whenever a problem is solved, someone makes money!
Every business on earth exists to solve a problem. When people couldn’t continue hiding their money under beds and in holes in the ground because they didn’t want anyone to steal them, banks came around to solve the problem. Today, banks make billions of dollars in profits every year because they keep OUR money! They solved our fear of losing money by agreeing to keep it safe and bear the risks if anything ever happened to it.
Iroko TV is a shining example of how a successful business can be built from solving a problem. Iroko TV is an online video streaming service that provides a catalogue of more than 5,000 African movies on the internet. Before this business, African movies were largely distributed by physical Compact Discs (CD). This kind of distribution limited the spread of these popular movies and made it nearly impossible and expensive for people in other parts of the world to get their hands on them. Jason Njoku saw this problem and built an online platform that makes these movies easily accessible from anywhere in the world. Just a little over two years since Iroko TV started, it has attracted more than US$10 million in investment funding and shows no sign of letting off!
In many African cities, finding the right home accommodation can be a real pain. The problem is, landlords who have houses cannot find the right tenants, and tenants who have the rent money to pay cannot find the right houses. Real Estate agency has become a booming business in many African cities because of the solution they provide to this nagging problem. These guys earn a healthy commission by helping people find the right accommodation.
As you already know, our dear Africa is awash with problems. Most of our roads are broken, electricity supply is poor, young people can’t find jobs, our schools don’t teach well or make simple lessons very hard by forcing people to master every aspect before they can move on and food is insufficient in some parts while being plentiful elsewhere. You cannot pretend not to know any problems; they live with us everyday from the time we wake in the morning until we sleep at night. Compared to the rest of the world, our problems are very many. But within these same problems are opportunities to make money by solving them!
You need to stop seeing problems in your life and and environment as ‘problems.’ Instead of a problem, a smart entrepreneur sees an opportunity to make money. That’s why we are different. If you really want to make money in Africa, start writing a list of all the problems you’ve noticed and possible solutions for them. By the time you’re done, we’re sure you’ll be flooded with great business ideas!
Path #2 – Convert your natural abilities and knowledge into a business – You don’t need to be the best!
Everyone has some skill or knowledge that can be turned into a business. The interesting thing about this principle is that you don’t need to be the best at it; knowing how to do it is just enough. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they have to be the best at something before they can make money out of it. Here’s a reality check: the best guys are so SCARED and don’t have the guts to start a business. You don’t need to be the best, you can always hire them anyway. All you need is a lot of passion, some creativity and the mindset of an entrepreneur. So, it’s a good thing you’re reading this right now!
The winner of the Miss Universe beauty contest is definitely not the most beautiful girl in the world. No! She’s only the most beautiful girl who entered the contest! We may never truly know who the most beautiful girl in the world is. Why? Maybe she’s so scared she’ll lose or doesn’t even know there’s a contest going on!
Think about it for a moment. Linda Ikeji isn’t the best writer in Nigeria, yet her blog is one of the most successful on the continent, and makes her hundreds of dollars every day. Compared to her I make pocket changes and barely gas money for monthly trips thru this blog. Faustina Sakyi, the highly successful Ghanaian cassava farmer is not by any means the most skilled cassava producer in her country. She only needed to know the basics about cassava to transform this traditional product into a unique multinational commodity. Just by applying her knowledge, this woman was able to earn enough money to rise out of poverty. Bimbo Balogun was a novice at beaded jewelry and was only ‘passing time’ with the art until she discovered by accident how lucrative a venture it was.
One thing is clear from the stories of these entrepreneurs: they are hardly masters or experts at what they do; they don’t even need to be! Most times, having the determination and passion to convert your ability or knowledge into a business may be all you need to become successful as an entrepreneur.
Are your natural abilities in cooking, writing, organizing, farming or influencing people? Do you have a basic but specific knowledge of a trade, product or market? This knowledge may come from sweet, bitter or ordinary events in your life – from a previous job or school, a past success or failure, a short/long stay in a foreign country, a difficult or interesting childhood… anything! Our personal experiences are full of knowledge that will interest other people and can be converted into some form of business.
You should take out a sheet of paper and write down all the things you know and can do quite well. Remember, you don’t have to be the best at it. These are likely going to be things you’ve known all your life but have always taken for granted. People may have often praised these abilities but you never gave too much thought to it. Think deep, they can’t be that far away. By the time you’re done, there should be a harvest of interesting business ideas for you!
Path #3 – Copy an already successful product or service and improve on it – Life is too short to be reinventing wheels especially if you’re not into wild ideas, gambling, and headaches averse!
Africa’s market is huge and there is more than enough room for new and existing businesses to satisfy the expanding consumption. The continent’s large population and high growth rate make it a delight to many foreign businesses. Africa’s economic pond is sizeable enough to accommodate fish of all sizes; big and small, local and international.
Copying an already successful product or service is one of the most popular and easiest means of starting your own business. It’s a huge part of how next-generation economies like China and India are building their fortunes. Just find a great product and think up a way to make it better, cheaper, more convenient or more beautiful! This definitely does not imply stealing copyrighted or patented work. For example, copying articles from a successful blog for use on your own website is a crime – it’s called copyright theft unless it falls within the exclusion provided within the US Copyright law.
As an example, let’s say ‘Wash Brothers’ is a popular and very successful clothes dry-cleaning business in your neighbourhood. It’s the only dry-cleaning service in the area and people don’t really have any alternatives. You’ve heard people complain that their rates are expensive and their customer service is horrible. But because the next dry-cleaner is too far away, everyone has to put up with Wash Brothers, who’s apparently making a lot of money in spite of its poor and expensive services.
You know what a smart entrepreneur would do? He or she would set up a similar dry-cleaning business with rates that are more reasonable and a customer service that is excellent. The only things you’ll be stealing from Wash Brothers are their customers. And that’s perfectly legal!
The ‘copy’ principle works beyond your immediate neighbourhood. Are there needs, problems or challenges you have noticed around you that already have solutions in other parts of your country or abroad? Most times, all you need to do is study the solution and replicate the same thing in your environment. Life is often too short to be reinventing wheels! Just be sure you’re on the right side of the law.
Muhammed Jah applied this same principle in his native Gambia when he noticed the huge local demand by individuals and companies for computer education. He set up a computer training school in Gambia and cornered the local market. His option was much cheaper for people who were previously paying a lot of money to fly in foreign computer tutors.
Good businesses to copy from can’t be too hard to find in Africa. Because the land is so virgin and competition is light, the few businesses which dare to exist are shining lights in their markets provided good management exist. But as our economy grows, more new businesses will enter our markets to compete. You can learn a lot from the existing products and services around you. Can you make them bigger, better, safer, cheaper, faster, more convenient or more beautiful?
Think, look and feel. There’s a lot going on around you to learn from! Believe my brethren, there are opportunities. We all cannot do all things, but we all can give a shout to a thing or two, starting small and expanding it to a comfortable size and then either becoming slave of money making or doing like some of us…chilling.
In any case, please try on one or more of these ways and you are sure to come up with profitable sound business ideas for mama Africa, yourself, and your loved ones.
Jonathan Nzali Tips 