Pages

Thursday, July 17, 2014

How to start a profitable Business Center in Nigeria

Business centers are booming – in the sense that they offer quick returns on investment - in many of Nigeria’s Universities, polytechnics and colleges of Education owing to the kind of environment they offer which promotes mainly photocopying of documents, printing and internet services for the teeming student population.

The Opportunity
There are at least 150 polytechnics in Nigeria and almost 120 universities with even more likely to be established in the coming years as the population of Nigeria increases plus the need to have more tertiary institutions closer to the average Nigerian. This can only mean that opportunities exist for many more business centers to be set up.

But Universities are not the only places offering opportunities to potential business center owners. You may want to take a look at shopping malls in Abuja and around very busy commercial districts to understand that many people require the services of business centers for their various official needs. I may have a laptop but not a printer or I may have documents to type but not the time to do it where else can I check for these services?

Services and Potential Income
Business centers render a number of services such as; photocopying of documents, printing, typesetting, desktop publishing, spiral binding, scanning and even internet café services. Income generated varies depending on location and price charged on services rendered but to be a little conservative we could be looking at not less than NGN 4000 per day with net profit margin at 30% of sales that could mean from photocopying alone one could make not less than NGN 36,000 per month.

Marketing Strategy
A few smart business center operators adopt very sensible marketing strategies to reach their potential customers. Imagine that you operate a business center in a very busy institution like a University or polytechnic where there are many other business center operators what can you do to outshine the competition and make sales? The strategy you adopt is what will determine whether or not you’ll make profit.

Startup Requirements

If you want to do this business on a small scale you could start with just doing photocopying services only then migrate to other related businesses as you expand.  A small space measuring 2 square meters is okay for a start and then you could look for a new location where many customers could easily find you.

Required for starting a  mini business center in Nigeria

Photocopying Machine – NGN 50,000
Chairs and Tables – NGN 10,000
A4 papers – NGN 1,000
Rent – NGN 60,000
Others – NGN 30,000

Total – NGN 151,000

Want to write a professionally acceptable business plan? Call for details: 0803 206 4106

3 comments:

  1. You forgot to add the most important thing of the business center...COMPUTERS. Also add laminating machine, Passport Photo printer, Binding machine, Plastic ID card Printer, and if you wanna look more sophisticated then you acn add DVD/CD Duplicator and DVD/CD Label Printer

    ReplyDelete
  2. The only thing missing there is a computer system, very important for typesetting, which of cos goes with a small printer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. well, the most important thing missing there is Generator.......how can you power those equipment....with the epileptic power supply we are have nawa days..

    ReplyDelete