Helping your child start a business in Abuja

Compared to most cities in Africa, Abuja is pretty young. Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria located in the center of Nigeria known as the Federal Capital Territory. With a population of almost eight hundred thousand people, Abuja boasts of an organized and serene environment that is conducive for business.

Here are a few things you have to look out for while helping your child start his business in Abuja:

1.     Government education policy

Nigerian law requires parents and guardians to ensure their children and wards receive at least nine years of basic formal education. Failure to do so may result in sanctions; you may have to as a parent discuss and agree with his school on how best your child can combine education and business.

2.     Your child’s interest

Before helping your child start a business, you have to ensure your child possesses a fusion between genuine love and interest in the business he wants to get involved with. Most often than not, when children start something they expect to be fun and it turns out to be the opposite, they get bored and abandon it. Abuja is a pretty expensive place to start up a business in, so make sure your child is willing to go the full nine yards before making any financial commitments.

3.     Help your child conduct a business survey

Abuja is one of the safest cities in Nigeria with a very favorable weather condition and good amenities; this has brought about a twenty five percent increase in the population of Abuja. Abuja like every city in Nigeria consists of different social classes, being the seat of power; you will find politicians, working class people in both the public and private sector etc.

If your child has decided what business he wants to start, you will have to assist your child to understand how the market works and how many other businesses he might have to contend with.

4.     Help your child write a business plan

One of the most important skills any business man or woman should possess is how to put together his ideas in a marketable fashion. Teaching your child to write a business plan will not just help him in starting his “kid business” but will help him in starting future businesses. Here are a few things that goes into writing a business plan:

• The key to writing a good business plan is in-depth research of the goods or services you are planning to bring into the market. Teach your child to effectively use the internet in carrying out research. Teach your child that it’s his responsibility to know everything there is to know about his business and the industry that he’s entering.
• A business plan should contain information regarding the purpose and nature of the business. It should also contain a marketing strategy. A business plan must explain what kind of goods or services your child plans to sell, what problems the goods or services are supposed to solve and of course who his competition is.
• Your child’s business plan should contain how he hopes to run the business, whether he will hire staff or run it alone. It advisable for your child at the beginning of his business runs it by himself with a little help from you every now and then.
• In my opinion “execution” is the most important part of a business plan, because a business plan is nothing but an idea written on a piece of paper if there is no step dedicated to how the business plan written on paper can be made a reality. This is where you come in as a parent, your child will need the help of an adult who to a reasonable extent to understands the market, to teach him how to make his dreams of starting a business a reality.

5.     Business location

Abuja is the most planned and systematically built among all Nigeria cities. The city with minimal pollution and congestion is really an extremely healthy place to live in. The city is well connected by roads to other parts of Nigeria, and other transport systems are really well developed. With the number of shopping malls and markets sprawling all across Abuja, finding a good business location in Abuja should not be a problem. Unlike most other cities in Africa where you have to consider the security situation of a particular area before choosing the place as a business location, in Abuja you don’t have to worry about this because crime is at its minimal. Over the past few years, online businesses have become popular in Abuja. Selling from clothes, household furniture to even gadgets, this might be a good opportunity for your child to start a business he will have fun running. Teach your child to bring to your attention any deal that seems good to be true, because if it seems too good to be true, most often than not it is.

6.     Legal structure of the business

More than half the businesses in Abuja are sole proprietorships, so this is the best option for your child considering he may not be old enough to register a business with the Cooperate Affairs Commission on his own.

7.     Teach your child to promote and advertise his business

One of the keys to starting and running a successful business or enterprise is advertisement. Ads can be created in various forms and scales, make sure your child includes his contact address in his ads. Make sure you also teach your child effective use of social media for the purpose of advertisement. These days almost everyone in Abuja uses one social media app or another, so it is a great way to advertise his business.

8.     Teach your child the magic of customer satisfaction

Business has been known over the years to survive on a reliable and steady clientele. In order to keep the customer happy, have your child offer fair prices and helpful services or products, teach your child to as much as possible stay true to his words. Although people in Abuja have been known over the years to be heavy spenders, just like everyone they hate getting ripped off, so teach your child to be an honest entrepreneur.

9.     Teach your child the virtue of patience

As Rome was not built in a day, so does it take time for a new business to get to where you want it to be. Teach your child the virtue of patience and resilience. Trust me he will need it!!!