How to Start Online Business in Nigeria

So you want to know how to start online business in Nigeria and make money online? There has never been a better time to start an online business today, than to look for proven and easy to start online business ideas that can fetch you extra income, even if you are working full-time with a company or agency. The most important step in starting a lucrative online business is to find a business idea that matches your skills and experience.

For example, if you have successfully grown a physical store or a business in your neighborhood, it is possible that this business can also be a good fit for the online marketplace. Nevertheless, this post contains our 5 step process of starting a profitable online business from the scratch.

You will also need responsive website designs, social media marketing, corporate branding and search engine optimization strategies to grow your business, increase your online visibility and make more sales. If you are thinking about stating your own business in Nigeria but have no capital, here is a list of 40 small business ideas you can consider.

 

 

What is Online Business?

Well, an online business is any business that uses the internet as its main channel of products delivery. Starting your own online business can be a sure way to sell, market, and advertise your goods and services to global customers. Online business can have different storefronts – regarding how they appear in front of customers on the internet. Depending on your chosen business or industry, there are lots of things you may have to consider before making the decision about starting an online business; or better; moving your existing local business online.

For example, if you want to start an online business but you’re not tech savvy or not familiar with the use of web tools; we invite you to start now by learning some of the computer and digital skills you need. This article only provides details on how you can start and manage your new online business from scratch. It’s curled from our starting and operating a business” eBook series: Starting a Business 101. This book is a new practical approach that contains every secret you need to set-up and grow a successful business enterprise in today’s dwindling and roller-coaster economy.

Now, to continue,

Anyone can start an online business provided you have a unique product, service or idea you are willing and ready to sell or trade online. But before you can jump and startup your business online and make money out of if; here are some facts you may need to understand and online business ideas to consider.

 

Types of Online Business Ideas to Consider

• Online business websites (in form of family, religious, personal or corporate websites)
• Online store (in form of eCommerce shop, classified ads, directory or marketplaces)
• Blogs (in form of sports blogs, news, fashion, entertainment, etc.)
• Social media business (in form of Facebook, Instagram Businesses, YouTube, and Twitter, etc.)

 

Benefits of Starting an Online Business:

• Online business saves you the cost of office rents, staffing and other expenses
• Online business has greater flexibility and efficiency in product and service delivery
• It supports 24/7 availability of products to customers,  locally and worldwide
• It allows you to live on your own terms, even while working full time jobs
• If you don’t have the capital, you can still start online business with little or no money
• With affiliate programs, or influencer marketing; you can earn more money working online

 

It’s said that anything that has benefits also has disadvantages, despite the benefits of the online business model, social entrepreneurs and business owners may also face some challenges running their businesses online. Some of these drawbacks you should know includes:

 

Challenges of Running Online Businesses:

• It requires building a business around things you’re good at first
• It takes lots of hard work to creating and growing an online business in most cases.
• You can face risks of online scams and frauds, so use both reliable and secure web tools.
• Having some technical or web applications knowledge may be necessary

 

Read: 10 Factors Affecting the Nigerian Business Entrepreneurs.

 

How to Start Online Business In Nigeria | 6 Steps Guide

Like the traditional office or retail businesses, you can run some or all of your business activities online. However, you need to put a number of elements in place and have them right at first. Now let us show you the ways, the strategies, and tactics you need to start a business in Nigeria and succeed at it.

 

Step1: Get Online Marketing Skills

Before you proceed further with your best online business goals, get completely qualified. As the business manager or owner, the best way to become qualified is to get a comprehensive digital marking training that is designed to suit your kind of business. So you can learn how to start and run a successful online business in Nigeria.

Attend all classes and acquire the digital marketing skills you need; including eCommerce marketing strategies, social media advertising, e-selling, search engine optimization and online reputation management skills.  Importantly, learn computer skills, other business related software packages that would help you navigate and market on the internet.

Taking online marketing courses will help you run and mange your online business smoothly. You can also read “How To” books and articles. And most importantly, seek help from the most successful people in your intended business industry. Ask questions and get tools and solutions from digital marketing experts. These approaches would help you save money and time wasting.

 

Step2: Develop Your Online Business Plan

Follow basic planning guidelines for starting a business at home or at small office location. You need to define your product or service; choose a niche and find out who your target audience and competitions are. What are they doing and where are they hanging out online? A well detailed business plan can help you answer these questions.

Use our Professional Business Plan Writers to prepare your online business plan. While growing your business online, would you have a partner who has complementary skills or who could help finance the business? If you can start by doing everything yourself, then this will help you from using your startup capital in hiring other people.

The “start and do it yourself” is a good way to learn everything about your online business. When you get things up and running, you can now employ more people to work  in your internet business. Again, your business may also need to be registered according to your bank requirements or federal laws; so as to formalize your online business transactions.

Remember to choose good brand name, website domain name and social media handles for your online business. These steps would make everything look unique and appear professional to your customers. It’s another opportunity to stand out and differentiate your business from other online and offline competitors.

 

Step3: Choose Best Web Hosting & Domain Register

A domain name is the internet address of your intending online business. Think of a domain name as your website name that people type in their search browsers in order to access your website online.  Choose and registering a domain name that is simple, short and can be easily remembered by your online shoppers. As a leading domain name registration and web hosting company in Lagos Nigeria, we will help you check whether the names you choose is available.

Again, every online business has a web hosting account that connects your domain name and corporate email addresses to a web host. A web host provides you with the storage space and technical support you need to create and manage your business website online: even if you want to use content management systems, like WordPress, Drupal or GoDaddy, Namecheap Hosting plan.

However, when thinking about the best hosting package for your business, choose a host company that understands your business environment and can give you suitable budgets. A good web host should be able to provide maximum up-time, server side caching, fast response time, and server security such as SSL Certificate.

 

Step4: Create a Responsive Online Business Website

Your business website is extremely important to your online success. You need the best in-class website design for your business Because you do not have a physical business location, many prospects would have to visit your website and not necessarily your ‘bricks and mortar’ office or shop location.

Therefore to earn people’s trust, your online website should load fast, be engaging, interactive, easy to navigate, and be able to do the selling for you; rather than telling a story. If you are building an e-commerce website, you may also need online billing systems. We would help you choose and integrate the best online payment gateway in Nigeria. This will make payments easier for your customers. If possible, secure your website’s connections with HTTPS encryption.

Hire professional website designers and creative branding agency to build a beautiful website for your business and setup your social media marketplace. Of cause you don’t want to design the business website yourself? Instead, you need to keep doing what we considered valuable for your business growth; monitoring the impacts we’re making on your brand and on your audience.

Our team of talented designers is up to the task with good skills to deliver your business goals. With a small budget, we can give you excellent deals for more complicated designs – creating your websites and online marketplace following Google ranking and optimization guidelines. Our brand development packages include corporate branding and packaging, graphic design, logo designs, website designs, copywriting, SEO services, social media and online advertising services.

 

Step5: Promote Your Online Business

Once your online business is ready and well packaged, all you have to do is to market your products, ideas or services online. You can sell your products in many ways online, starting from free account listing on all the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Linkedin.

Search for the people and businesses in your interest and engage with them on social media networking and guess post outreach. Before that, consider writing creative content for your website. Content leads the way in the online business environment. It gives your brand a voice and build your online credibility.

Online businesses cannot be successful without customers who come in the form of site visitors, social media fans or followers. We can help you create quality contents like blog posts, products images, eBooks, infographics and marketing videos that are compelling to your potential customers and can sell your brand online.

Generating the highest amount of traffic on the website will create the highest chances that those visitors will be converted to customers with high engagement rates. You can advertise your business across all online channels, register with major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing); and use best keywords that will drive the most paying traffics to your website.

 

Wrapping up: How to Start Online Business In Nigeria

As you can see, there’s a lot of work to do if you want to learn how to start online business in Nigeria; be it offline or online business. You need to know your onions and get people to trust your business by engaging your ideal customers; and then giving unique brand value to them, anytime anywhere you find them online.

Choosing the right business name and the right business model; and creating a stunning web presence are all important steps. Finding the best place to promote your best online business will still also need your considerations and professional input.

 

Related: 

How To Make Money Online In Nigeria.

Future Of Online Business Provides Money Making Opportunities