Entrepreneurship

Small businesses are privately owned and operated business with relatively small turnover and staff numbers, typically seen as constituting part of a specific commercial or economic sector.

Are you a Nigerian looking for small business you can start with little money? Are you an entrepreneur searching for business ideas to invest in? Do you have a small amount of money but you don’t have any business idea?

Here are 25 successful businesses in Nigeria with little capital

1. Production and Sales of Bedsheet and Pillowcase

Ideally, every home owns at least a bedsheet or two, while some families own more than five bedsheets, depending on the family’s size. Hence, there is no way one would go into this business without making waves.

What you need to start: Buy your quality materials in bulk, then give to a good tailor who sews the materials into bedsheet and pillowcase. After that, you can sell away through social media or door to door.

2. Organic Drink Production and Sales

People are becoming increasingly aware of the health implication of processed food and also soda because of high rise of cancer, stroke, diabetes and also high blood pressure. This has caused a constant drift from soft drinks to naturally made drinks and fruit juices. Some examples of naturally made drinks are smoothies, fura da nunu, tiger nut drink, and freshly made fruit juice.

All you need to transform this business idea into a profitable venture is a blender, desired fruits and ingredients, plastic bottles and a refrigerator.

3. Dry Cleaning Services

The stress from the 9 to 5pm job or for the entrepreneur running around to ensure the business is running smoothly is enough to wear out the body. Weekends are for spending time with family and relaxing for the next week’s hustle. With this kind of busy schedule, most people will not mind paying for this service.

To start, reach out to as many possible families that needs this service. All you need to start a dry-cleaning business is a small washing machine and an iron. You can start small, then expand as the business grows.

4. E-Payments

To some people going to ATM or bank feels like punishment to them. They prefer to walk into a nearby e-payment outlet for their banking transactions even though they are charged a transaction fee.

You can become a banking agent and own an e-payment outlet. To become an agent, go to any bank of your choice, and register to become one of their agents. After registration, you would be given a POS machine. While some banks give their POS for free, some charge a small fee for it. 

5. Grilling

Locally grilled cow meat (Suya) majorly made by Hausas has been an all-time favourite. Yes, suya is the most popular but we must also acknowledge that grilled fish, chicken (barbeque), goat meat (asun), etc are gaining ground in the market.

Asides having a permanent stand, you can go to grill at parties, dinner, birthdays etc. and make money. All you need for this business is a griller, desired “protein” and spices.

6. Barber’s Shop

It is a necessity for males and females on low cut to get a hair-cut regularly. Men always visit a barber’s shop to either have a hair cut or shave their beards.

All you need to start the business is a store, clippers, small combs, sterilizers, generator etc. These won’t cost up to 100,000 Naira depending on the location.

7. Pop Corn Production and Sales

Popcorn is one of the many treats almost everyone loves, both young and old, male as well as females. Popcorn is also a good companion for the movies.

Therefore, you can’t go wrong exploring this business idea. All you need to start this business on a small scale is fresh and moist corn, popcorn machine, sugar, salt, butter, and any other flavour you would like to add.

8. Football Viewing Centre

Football fans can go to any length to ensure they watch their club, country, or favourite player on the field. Therefore, this business idea is going to be a profitable venture, as the fan base of the football sport is numerous worldwide.

All you need to start is a good location, generator, a flat-screen television of at least 32″, chairs, DSTV or GOtv decoder. You can also sell chilled drinks and grilled “protein” to make additional money.

9. Poultry Farming

Poultry farming is a typical successful business you can start with low capital from the comfort of your backyard. The capital input may vary depending on your start-up level. But with a capital of (N50,000 – N100,000), you can comfortably rear 50 birds from 2 weeks chicks to market size.

10. Fish Farming

This is another lucrative business in Nigeria that you can also start from your backyard. With a capital of N100,000 you can comfortably rear 50 fingerlings to market size. There is no doubt if you will make it in fish farming once you have passion for the business.

11. Snail Rearing Business

Snail farming is raising snails for food as well as for pharmaceutical use. You can also start this business from your backyard. Snail farming is one of those businesses that you can start with no capital especially if you living in a rural area. If you are in a rural area, you can easily gather the wild type if snails from composites and bushes to rear. However, if you are living in urban area, you can purchase high breed snails from market to rear.

12. Pig Farming Business

Piggery business is a lucrative business with low capital start-up. With one or two female pigs you can start piggery business. One good thing about the business is that it has a good profit margin. One pig can give birth to about 8 – 12 piglets in a single delivery which can be raised and sold.

13. Perfume and Body Ornamental Production

Perfume and body ornament production is a profitable business you can start with little capital. You can start this business if you have the knowledge of mixing chemicals. From the production of perfumes and body ornaments to owning a cosmetics industry.

14. Social Media Marketing

One thing is to produce a product, another is for your product to reach your target customers. Most entrepreneurs are faced with the challenge of marketing their products. This is where social media marketers come in. All you need for a start-up is a good smart phone.

15. Importation Business

Importation business involves buying goods from other country and selling in Nigeria at a profit. You can start importation business on a low scale (mini-importation) and then grow to become a large importer of different products.  

16. Palm Oil Processing Business

Nigeria is one of the highest exporters of palm oil in Africa. The processing stage is relatively low in number compare to the usage of palm oil processed products in Nigeria. Palm oil processing business is very lucrative. However, you can start on a low scale by processing palm oil fruits from the comfort of your backyard; and then grow to a big palm oil processing industry.

17. Livestock Feed Production

Livestock feed production industry thrives well in Nigeria. Common livestock feeds are chicken feeds, guinea pig feeds, pigs’ feeds, and so on. You can start on low scale by going into local livestock feed production and then grow into commercial livestock feed production industry.

18. Okrika Bale Business

This business thrives very well in Nigeria as a result of poor economy. An average income earner in Nigeria hardly enters the boutique to buy first-grade clothing. Hence, Okrika bale business is a good business to start anywhere in Nigeria but most especially in sub-urban and rural localities.

19. Bakery Confectioneries

Bakers’ confectionery, also called flour confections involves principally making of sweet pastries, cakes, doughnuts, and similar baked goods. Bakery confectioneries is one of the low capital businesses young ladies and housewives who train in bakery can start.

20. Tailoring Business

Tailoring involves designing, cutting, fitting, and finishing clothes. Tailoring requires skills. So, the first step to your success is to acquire skills.

Cloth designing and tailoring is often a neglected business idea. It pays and the good thing about it is that you can start on a small scale at the comfort with just a sewing machine and then grow into a fashion house.

21. Beauty Salon

A beauty salon is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for men and women. Beauty salon is a lucrative business in Nigeria. You can start on low scale with a store, hand dryer, combs, shampoo, and few other things.

22. Mobile Phone Repairs Business

Mobile phone repairs involve fixing faulty mobile phones of people. However, you need to be trained before starting the business. You can start a mobile phone repairs business in low scale with just getting a shop and then grow to new mobile phone production company.

23. Sales of Mobile Phone Accessories

This business involves the sale of cellular and mobile phone accessories such as batteries, battery chargers, mobile phone repair parts, phone jackets and cover, memory card, USB cable, modern, earpiece and many more.

Mobile phone accessory business is a lucrative business and you can also start on a low scale and then grow into an importer of mobile phone accessories.   

24. Cassava Processing Business

This business is a rural and suburban business. Cassava product like Garri is fast-selling in Nigeria. This is because Garri is major food eaten by Nigerians.

Cassava processing industry is a large industry especially when mechanize. Starting a mechanize cassava processing industry is capital intensive. It is best to start cassava processing business in low scale with a semi-manual cassava processing machine.  

25. Vegetable Farming

Vegetable farming is one of the profitable low capital businesses. The business is more profitable during the dry season than rainy seasons in Nigeria. You can start vegetable farming from your backyard once you have enough garden land sources of water for irrigation.

If you have enough land and source of water for irrigation, then five to ten thousand naira will be enough to start a commercial vegetable farming business.

Viable seeds, insecticides and fertile soil are what you need to succeed in vegetable farming. The appropriate time to make money from vegetable farming is the dry season. You can start a vegetable farming on low scale from the comfort of your backyard and then grow it to commercially mechanized vegetable farm.

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Finding your purpose in a world when everything changes so quickly can feel difficult. There is, however, nothing quite like discovering the reason for which you can serve, for it is through serving that you live. The Japanese term “Ikigai,” which means “cause for being,” summarizes and values the true meaning of what it means to live a purposeful life. Ikigai is believed to be the union of 4 elements:

• what you love
• the things you are good at
• what the world needs
• and what you can be paid for.

The Japanese see the discovery of your ikigai as requiring a deep, long search within yourself that can bring about satisfaction and meaning to life.

So how can you go about discovering your ikigai? Here are some tips that will help you:

Finding your purpose

People find their “ikigai” in a variety of ways, including life-changing situations, profound inner-reflection, chance, or an inner-determination to make a difference. Finding a strong purpose or a cause that you are passionate about will help you stay loyal to yourself and focused on persevering through difficult circumstances.

Take action

There is no perfect time or age to pursue your passion if you have multiple passions or are waiting for the opportune occasion. The only way to discover your actual purpose is to take action. Every small step counts, and each one brings you closer to realizing your true calling.

Network

Connect with others who share your interests and hobbies, as well as those who have been there and done that. You might be surprised by the complementing ideas, collaboration chances, and even the blunders they’ll share with you from their path. But don’t underestimate the impact you can have if you’re pioneering a new path.

Don’t give up when you fail

You may face numerous setbacks while pursuing your passion or purpose for being, such as a lack of peer support, having your ideas rejected, or not receiving financial assistance. But never give up.

Discovering your ikigai, can be one of the greatest journeys you will embark on. It will be challenging and there will be many ups and downs.  Don’t you ever give up.

“you can’t sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream, you’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”

Diana Ross

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Registration is opened for the third phase of Terraskills SME Challenge (#TerraskillsSMEchallenge3.0)

Terraskills SME Challenge is a bimonthly business creativity challenge aimed towards; helping small businesses to grow and foster the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG-8). This initiative promotes decent work and economic growth through; the allocation of funds to Starts-Ups/Entrepreneurs in Nigeria; following successive competitive SME Challenge tagged #TerraskillsSMEchallenge.

The third phase of the Terraskills SME Challenge will hold from 10am Tuesday 28th September, 2021, to 10am Wednesday 29th September, 2021.

Prizes:

• Winner: N50,000
• 1st Runner-Up: N20,000
• 2nd Runner-Up: N10,000
• 3rd Runner-Up: N10,000
• 4th Runner-Up: N10,000

Eligibility Criteria:

• You must have an established business.
• Participants who have previously won in any of the previous Terraskills SME challenge are not eligible to participate. However, they can vote for a running contestant.
• Participants who have participated in any of the previous Terraskills SME challenge but didn’t a win a prize are eligible to participate and do not need to register again. However, they should ensure they follow step 2 to 5 as stated in the guide to the contest.

Guide to the Contest:

1. Firstly, register for the challenge
2. Secondly, follow us on social media and turn on our notification (Facebook: Terraskills; Instagram,YouTube: TerraskillsNG).
3. Thirdly, on your Facebook/Instagram page; share photos/videos of your business; and describe how your business has been helpful to your community; and tag us. This should be done between 12am Saturday 25th September to 12pm Monday 27th September, 2021.
4. Fourthly, on the day of the Challenge i.e., Tuesday, 28th September, 2021, Terraskills will make a separate post for all business submissions on our; Facebook and Instagram. We will tag the respective owners of each post.
5. Fifthly, get a cumulative of at least 1,000 likes on your post on our Facebook and Instagram page. However, ensure each of your voters like our page and turn on our notification as that is what will make each vote (LIKE) count.

Selection of Winners

• The top 5 contestants with the highest number of valid votes will be announced winners of the prizes.

Disqualification

• Please note that all votes (LIKES) will be carefully scrutinized. Contestant will be automatically disqualified if they are found to have bought fake votes (LIKES).

Summary

• Registration Deadline: Saturday 25th September 2021.
• Post submission: From 12am Saturday 25th September – 12pm Monday 27th September, 2021
• Challenge Date:  10a.m Tuesday, 28th September to 10a.m Wednesday, 29th September, 2021

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Brand differentiation is critical for professional services. Contrary to popular opinion it is actually possible to differentiate your firm in the marketplace. In fact, it is not only possible but absolutely essential.

Like several other strategists, I never advocate that a client compete on price alone. This is because until you are able to develop and deploy a sustainable cost advantage, your single differentiator cannot be price. For professional services in particular, competing on price exposes you to a whole other level of competition and substitution such as automation, DIY options, and offshore alternatives.

There are several advantages of having a differentiation strategy. These benefits include:

• Not being compelled to compete on price alone.
• Prospects are able to focus on the qualitative value of your offering, because you cannot be directly compared to others.
• The ability to demand higher fees from clients.
• Attracting more of your ideal clients and closing leads quickly.
• Increased customer loyalty.

A differentiation strategy is how you stand out from the competition by following a deliberate plan. It must highlight a difference that your clients find valuable and be meaningful in comparison to your competitors. The stronger the differentiation, the greater your firm’s competitive advantage. In order to develop a sustainable differentiation strategy, you must identify your differentiators. In the same way as your brand promise, your differentiators must be relevant, true and provable. You must also intentionally build your reputation around these differentiators and clearly communicate it to your target audience.

You can have more than one differentiator and having a blend of differentiators actually provides a greater competitive advantage. I recommend that whatever strategy of various differentiators that you come up with, ensure that one of them is undeniable expertise and demonstration of knowledge. As a professional services firm, your clients must feel that you have the ability to solve their problems.

Here is a list of some differentiators for brand differentiation to consider:

You should focus on:

• Serving a particular role within your target organization – speaking directly to a specific target within an organization such as a CIO, CMO or CEO has unique advantages.

• Providing a unique process or technology – this makes you special especially if it’s proprietary and is truly unique in its benefits and results.

• Serving clients of a specific size – this is a common differentiator especially for tech businesses but has distinct advantages, as it shows a deeper specialization and experience over brands that cater to firms of every size.

• Industry – this can be very successful but be careful. Choosing only one industry might make you vulnerable to fluctuations in their market and choosing too many waters down the differentiator effect.

• Clients in a particular target audience – this focuses on a specific customer segment. For example, if all your customers are first time parents you are not limited by geography, industry or market forces.

• Hiring one or more individuals who are experts and thought leaders in their fields – this one is a gem and is a gift that keeps giving as it is not easily duplicated and provides tremendous value to clients.

• Specific geographic location – technology might have affected this one but there is still a case for it especially when prospects value local knowledge.

• Providing a unique network of relevant relationships – are there any valuable relationships that you can offer your clients to sweeten the deal? If your clients require travel assistance for example, having memberships in globally relevant associations and a network of influencers would be impressive.

Having an impressive clients list – this would never go out of use as it reflects capacity, expertise, and trust of the impressive clients which provides social proof.

• Clients with a similar characteristic – this is similar to serving clients in a particular target audience but is a bit broader in scope and the characteristic is not static/finite. For example if you offer moving/ relocation services to only corporate.

• Hiring staff that have similar credentials or attributes – this could be tricky but if you are able to follow through, it could be successful. Imagine if you were able to hire only staff with provable distinction results or all your team members have several years of experience in an industry that is relevant to your prospects.

• Providing proprietary data that is not easily created or duplicated – this is one of my favorites and in a place like Nigeria where any pure and usable data is hard to come by, it is a huge differentiator. It could take the form of research, surveys or reports.

• Highlighting a notable accomplishment – this is a popular differentiator and always makes a difference especially when the accomplishment is one that would impress your clients.

• Developing a unique brand personality – this one takes a bit of work but sometimes could be achieved simply with a great team culture and philosophy.

Now to the part where you create the actual strategy:

Discover or decide how you will be different.

Look within to see if there are existing differentiators that just need to be highlighted and clearly communicated. Sometimes these existing differentiators might have got you to where you are but can’t take you where you want to go. I recommend that you balance the discovery exercise with the conscious decision(s) on how you will be different, so you are more proactive and innovative. Remember though, that the differentiators need to be true, valuable to the client and provable.

Test the chosen differentiators.

I am consistently amazed at how through research; businesses discover they have completely missed what is important to their customers. Your clients may identify or highlight a feature of your firm that you haven’t paid attention to in the past. You can learn a lot from your existing clients, the happy ones and the not so happy ones. Look at the most successful projects you have worked on over the last 1-2 years, what do they have in common? Are there any differentiators that you can find? For instance, if you have had a lot of clients request and download your resources it could point to a data focus. You could also decide to take this differentiator a notch higher by making a management decision to produce more proprietary data that is useful to your clients, testing out with a few clients.

Select the differentiators to focus on

Remember when I said that you could combine differentiators? Now that you have a shortlist of differentiators, it is beneficial to choose which ones to focus on. It is important to mention at this point that there are pros and cons to your differentiation strategy. The deeper you focus and communicate your differentiators; as much as you open yourself up to a plethora of opportunities you also take yourself out of consideration for several other opportunities. The reputation you gain among your target audience and within your industry more than makes up for the lost business elsewhere. The most important thing is to decide what kind of brand you want to be and how you want to do it.

Define, Tell, Own!

Some differentiators are easier to prove than others, so you must have a strategy to back up any claims that you make. You also need to create an organizational culture, the right hiring, the right policies as well as training to make your claims real and lasting. You might also need to work on third party endorsements to validate some of your claims. If one of your differentiators is your impressive client list, you may need to invest in say, video testimonials of these clients for your website and across your marketing collateral.

Your narrative and messaging needs to effectively communicate your differentiators, or else what is the point of going through all the trouble? Asides making your differentiators visible, ensure to train the team especially all external facing team members to speak about your differentiators at every opportunity.
And after all this has been done, your differentiators must affect the way you think and act. You must live it every day or else you lose authenticity and trust. It is a continuous process but one that leads to high performance and great levels of sustainable growth and success.

Good Luck!

Adapted from Business Day.

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About the Challenge

Terraskills SME Challenge is a bimonthly business creativity challenge aimed towards; helping small businesses to grow and foster the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG-8) in promoting decent work and economic growth through; the allocation of funds to Starts-Ups/Entrepreneurs in Nigeria following successive competitive SME Challenge tagged #TerraskillsSMEchallenge.

The First Phase of the Challenge

The first phase of the Challenge was launched on; Wednesday 21st April 2021 to commemorate the World Creativity and Innovation Day. It was a 1-day virtual business pitch that occurred from 12 am to 11:59 pm with various entrepreneurs showcasing their creative businesses. The challenge came to an exciting end as 5 finalists emerged winners from the pool of entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

The Management of Terraskills Learning Systems Limited presented the 5 Finalists with the sum of N100,000; with the overall winner taking a share of N50,000; while a share of N20,000 was awarded to the 1st Runner-Up; and N10,000 each were awarded to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Runner Ups.

Mr. Donald E. Ogbuwa, the Managing Director, Terraskills Learning Systems Limited congratulated each of the finalists and expressed the Management’s satisfaction in their efforts, and encouraged them to keep productivity alive.

The Winners of the First Phase of the Terraskills SME Challenge.

The winners of the #TerraskillsSMEchallenge1.0 were; Juliet Orazulunyem, Blessing Ese, Fatima Usman, Akunnaya Precious, and Uguba Ndubiusi.

Juliet Orazulunyem (aka Tender Angel on Facebook)

Juliet, the overall winner of the Terraskills SME Challenge1.0 is a Creative and Innovative Young Business Entrepreneur based in Abia State. She is the founder of Tender Angel Collections; an enterprise that specializes in creating different designs, types, and sizes of slippers that are affordable to Nigerians. She has used her skills to empower housewives, students, and other young people through training and internship opportunities.

Blessing Ese (aka Classic Ese on Facebook)

Blessing, the 1st Runner-Up of Terraskills SME Challenge1.0, graduated from Imo State Polytechnic in Owerri. She is the founder of Classic Coal; an enterprise located in Asaba, Delta State which deals in the sale of charcoal. She became an entrepreneur in order to close the energy gap in her community. Nigeria suffers from epileptic power supply; and the high and fluctuating price of kerosene and gas makes it even more difficult for the majority of Nigerian families to access energy for basic cooking. As a result, she identified the need to supply wood coal; which provides low-cost energy to families who cannot afford other expensive energy sources. She has been able to support herself and train others who want to buy and sell charcoal.

Fatima Muhammad Ali

Fatima, the 2^nd Runner-Up of the Terraskills SME Challenge1.0 is an entrepreneur in the food industry who founded Halima Tasty Bites; a business located in Plateau State. She makes snacks for a living and employs other youths.

Uguba Ndubuisi

Uguba, the 3rd Runner-Up of the Terraskills SME Challenge1.0 is an entrepreneur in the food industry who manages Uguba and Sons Ventures, a restaurant that serves different Nigerian delicacies, and is located in Ebonyi State.

Precious Akunnaya (aka abowl_ohf_cherie on Instagram)

Precious, 4th Runner-Up of Terraskills SME Challenge1.0 is a student and an entrepreneur who founded Cherietique_World, a fashion enterprise that deals in the importation and sales of clothing in Abia State.

The Next Phase

Terraskills SME Challenge will occur bi-monthly (6 times every year). The second phase of the Challenge (#TerraskillsSMEchallenge2.0) will commence on Tuesday, 29th June 2021.

We believe that community support is essential to achieving a sustainable economy; and hope this initiative will inspire creativity and innovation among other Nigerians and young people around the world.

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Terraskills SME Challenge 2021 inspired young entrepreneurs to showcase their talents and innovations to the world through Terraskills platforms. The Challenge which took place on the 21st of April 2021, to commemorate the World Creativity and Innovation Day saw the top five participants rewarded with various cash gifts. Blessing Ese was the first runner-up of the challenge.

Blessing Ese (aka Classic Ese) graduated from Imo State Polytechnic in Owerri. She became an entrepreneur in order to close the energy gap in her community. Nigeria suffers from epileptic power supply; and the high and fluctuating price of kerosene and gas makes it even more difficult for the majority of Nigerian families to access energy for basic cooking. As a result, she identified the need to supply wood coal; which provides low-cost energy to families who cannot afford other expensive energy sources.

She has been able to support herself and train others who want to buy and sell charcoal.

Contact Blessing Ese for Small to Large Scale orders via;

• Facebook

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The Terraskills SME challenge, held to commemorate World Creativity and Innovation Day in 2021, aimed to inspire young entrepreneurs who are filling the creativity and innovation gap with their businesses. The competition turned out to be a huge success.

Juliet Orazulunyem, aka Tender Angel Juliet (on Facebook), is the winner of the just concluded Terraskills SME challenge 2021.

She is an Anambra State-born creative and innovative young female entrepreneur. She specializes in producing slippers in a variety of designs, styles, and sizes at a low cost. By creating opportunities for training and internship, she has used her skills to empower housewives, students, and other young Nigerians.

The fascinating thing about her sandals and slippers is that they are handmade; she has received several compliments on her outstanding craftsmanship. She distributes at a low cost to retailers, who then market to make a profit. Her goal has been to motivate housewives and students to generate a source of income to help them meet their financial obligations. She also delivers to various parts of the country and has a good online presence.

• Instagram
• Facebook

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We appreciate everyone that joined the Terraskills Creativity Challenge with the hashtags #TerraskillsSME & #WCID2021. In our quest to stimulate creativity among Nigerian Youths, Entrepreneurs, and SMEs, we asked business owners to share with us how their businesses are creatively and innovatively filling the gaps within their industry. The results were amazing; as many young Nigerians took the social media space to share their innovative businesses; and how it has been helping their immediate community and Nigerians at large.

The advertised prize was to reward only the winner of the challenge at N50,000.00 only. However, based on the passionate participation of young Nigerians; the creativity on display by young people that pitched their Businesses; the Board/Management Team of Terraskills Learning Systems Limited have decided to honour the whole Top-5 Finalist with cash prizes; as well as promoting their businesses to reach a global audience.

On this note, it is our pleasure to unveil the Overall Winner and Four Runner-ups of TerraskillsSME Challenge 2021:

Following our selection criteria for the overall winner of the #TerraskillsSME Challenge; we hereby announce TENDER ANGEL JULIET with a total impression of 4,631 as the winner of #TerraskillsSME Challenge 2021.

We hope this will inspire creativity and innovation among other Nigerians and young people around the world.

To learn more about these finalists, visit our social media handles; 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Thank you all. Keep Creativity and Innovation alive!

Signed, Management.
Terraskills Learning Systems Limited.

Decision-making is an everyday task. It is the process of determining the best course of action from a collection of two or more options. As an entrepreneur, the kind of decisions you make can make or mar your success.

As humans generally, it is natural to desire the best of every choice whether in one’s personal or professional life. However, sometimes, it can be quite confusing to identify the best choice from a plethora of options. Therefore, it is important to utilize an effective decision-making strategy to make informed choices.

To ease decision-making and increase the likelihood of making good decisions, it is essential to break down the process into stages or steps.

Here are 7 steps to making effective decisions:

1. Have a good understanding of the problem or situation
2. Make a list of all choices/alternatives you could choose from
3. Obtain relevant and accurate information about each of the options
4. Evaluate the Pros and Cons of each option based on the information you have gathered
5. Select the choice that appears to be more desirable or appropriate than the others 
6. Act on the choice you have made
7. Rate the outcome of your decision and identify the need for improvement for future purposes.

The more efficient you are in making decisions, the more successful you would be. However, if you find that you have made any wrong decision at any point in time, do not feel too bad about it. Rather, understand that every wrong choice in life gives you more experience and knowledge such that next time, you will not repeat the same mistakes.

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To influence someone means to convince them to agree to or do something they probably don’t want to do (yet). This can be achieved by; effectively communicating your will following 3 thoughtful and strategic steps that I have summarized as PDF; Planning, Delivery, and Follow-up. 

Step 1: Planning.

Be reasonable in your intention.

Being reasonable here means that you are convinced that your will is; feasible, beneficial, is making sense to you, and would also make sense to a prospect before communicating it to them. 

Target the right person to communicate with.

A secret to maximizing your influence is to ensure it is directed to the right/suitable person. For instance, it will be fruitless to be planning to influence a vegetarian to patronize your roast chicken store. Therefore, you should study your target before approaching them.

Anticipate questions and objections.

Put yourself in the shoes of the prospect; think about likely questions and objections they may have, and draft convincing solutions to tackle them.

Choose the right medium for your pitch.

Study your prospect to understand how they would prefer to communicate a matter like yours; over the phone, in person, etc. Visiting a prospect in person to discuss your pitch could make them feel respected, and as a result, they may want to consider you. On the other hand, some persons may not consider you if your request is verbally communicated rather than formally written. Therefore, you should choose a medium centered around them, not you. Simply asking them what medium will be suitable for them will go a long way if you are confused as to the right medium to use.

Ensure the timing is right.

The best time your communication will be most impactful and influencing is when it is delivered at a time that it is most beneficial to your prospect (e.g., if you trying to influence a purchase) and most convenient for them.

Step 2: Delivery.

Spike up their Interest.

Having others want to do something is the best way to get them to do it. You can spike up their interest by drawing their attention to a problem that could escalate if they do not buy your idea. For instance, saying “do you know that using a system without a powerful antivirus protection can lead to its gradual damage, a slow-down in work, and complete loss of data?” can spike up the interest of someone without a laptop antivirus protection.

Be Polite.

People like to feel important and respected. Remember that you’re attempting to convince someone to agree to or do something they probably don’t want to do yet. How you make people feel while communicating with them can impact their decisions, therefore, being polite is vital. For instance, saying, “I will be delighted if you could try out this amazing Product XYZ to protect your laptop from malware and make your work faster”, is more polite and would likely yield positive result than saying, “your unprotected laptop and sluggish work needs Product XYZ, so buy it”.

Don’t make the discussion into an argument.

While trying to influence someone to buy your idea, if you make your communication sound like an argument such that your prospect begins to feel like you are trying to make them feel like a loser, they will get defensive, such that rather than buying your idea and losing to you, they will maintain their stand against you. For instance, saying, I agree with you that your former antivirus type is good. However, it would interest you to know that Product XYZ has XY feature which makes it unique and more effective” will yield a better result than saying “Impossible! I can never agree with you! Even a novice can tell that product XYZ is better than your former antivirus.

Speak with Empathy.

 Speaking with empathy means acknowledging the other person’s feelings and point of view. When you show people that you are listening to them and that you understand them, they will also want to listen to you. For instance, saying “I understand how you feel about the high product cost especially at this difficult time, however, if you try to purchase Product XYZ for your laptop now, you can be rest assured of safety and increased productivity” will yield more result than saying “you shouldn’t even be complaining of the product cost, you should be glad I am offering you the product in the first place.

In seeking an assistant, exaggerate your need at first.

For instance, seeking for 2 hours of a busy man’s time to facilitate a free lecture may sound exorbitant to them, and so they may decline. However, reducing your demand afterward to 30 minutes can spur their empathy towards you and for that reason, they may grant your wish (the 30 minutes you actually wanted).

Step 3: Follow Up

While it’s quite possible to get a positive response as you make your initial pitch, some persons may not give you an answer immediately, therefore it is important to follow-up to reinforce your interest and encourage the prospect to take positive decisions.

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