Lucrative business ideas? There are maany.
A lot has happened in 2016 – smart entrepreneurs have made money, outstanding entrepreneurs picked up awards and grants, Tech entrepreneurs raised so much in investment funding, 2016 has been good and bad for businesses for different reasons. Now we look at 2017.
The good thing about 2017 is a lot of people will find new, creative ways of doing old businesses, and that will be the beauty of it. You can have your own brand of products in your own brand name without doing any of the production yourself, for example. You can enter the real estate business without spending huge sums of money, and so on. This is why 2017 will be a lucrative year for smart entrepreneurs. Let’s get right to it.
TOP 15 HOT BUSINESS IDEAS FOR 2017
1. AGRICULTURE BUSINESS IDEAS
Agriculture has been rightly promoted as one important channel for our country to bounce back on her feet and regain her former economic glory. Young people are realizing this and are doing their best to key in and prosper. To make this work, government should provide resources and incentives to encourage more young people into agriculture.
2. ANIMAL FEED PRODUCTION BUSINESS
People worry so much about starting animal production business; only a few see the huge potentials in animal feed production. Fish must eat to grow, right? Don’t wait till you have a big factory. A friend of mine made huge profits this year in animal feed. He would visit noodles production factories and make a deal to buy off the waste product of noodles (the broken, no-use ones). He would then supply them to fish farmers as feed. He has no company or factory, just his resourcefulness and ingenuity, and he makes very good money. Animal feed is good business, more so in 2017.
3. WASTE RECYCLING
So much has been said about the environment this year. Big players like the US and China are going big about safeguarding the environment. True, Nigeria may not have gotten to the point where we cut our fossil fuel reliance and go completely green. But Nigerian entrepreneurs are not giving up. Waste recycling is a good project for the environment.
4. PAPER BAG PRODUCTION
Still on the environment, I expect plastic bags to gradually go out of use from 2017 (maybe not that immediate but bound to happen at some point); they are not good for the environment. Paper bags have got good shouts in other African countries with nations like South Africa, Morocco, Rwanda, Uganda, etc all imposing a ban on plastic bags. How long before our beloved Nigeria follows suit? No matter how long it takes, investing in paper bag production will be worth it. We use a lot to bwrap things which makes this another lucrative business idea.
5. ONLINE TUTORIAL
Blogging is not the only way you can establish yourself as an expert and make money out of your knowledge. Many people now take online courses to make up for the knowledge they could not get in the classroom. There is a big opportunity in this niche. If you can deliver tutorials on topics people are interested in learning, people will gratefully pay you to learn them. Starting your own online tutorials does not take much. For a start you can sign up as an instructor on Udemy and later, develop your own blog/platform.
6. REAL ESTATE
Every year is a good year for real estate business. 2017 will not be an exception. The major drawback in real estate business is the amount of capital it requires for startup. There’s a way around it. Oluwatobi Oladele delivered a lecture on how you can start your own lucrative real estate business with very little capital. So why not give it a go in 2017?
7. MOBILE FOOD VENDING BUSINESS
If you love cooking, mobile food vending will be a good and lucrative-business idea to get into the catering business in 2017. The Igwe Brothers started Speedmeals Mobile Kitchen in 2010; they agree that in 2016, the market is still as open as ever. I expect more caterers to go mobile in 2017 because people will appreciate having their food brought to them. The major challenge with this, as with any food business, is getting peoples’ trust. You do this with proper hygiene, tasty meals and timely, consistent delivery. It will also put a lot of ‘mama put’ on their toes to improve their quality of their cooking.
8. ECOMMERCE
Jumia and Konga had a hard time convincing people to shop online. Now that hesitance is finally giving way. Other players like jiji and Kaymu are making their shouts. More will follow suit in 2017. You too can get your share of the pie in the eCommerce industry. You don’t even need to have your own eCommerce store as you can sell your goods on any of the existing platforms. It’s a good deal because they already have the medium, the brand and traffic. You simply list your goods and you are good to go. If your business is not online in 2017, I’m afraid you would be swimming against the current. Another lucrative business idea.
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9. LOGISTICS/COURIER BUSINESS
The increase in eCommerce businesses will open doors for more delivery/courier companies to emerge. If you are shipping goods from Owerri to Lagos, someone has to deliver them. Cost of shipping is a hindrance to eCommerce business in Nigeria. More delivery companies will provide healthy competition, forcing down prices. This is a good thing. How to start a small courier company? Read this article.
10. ONLINE MARKETING
Take your pick: blogging, freelancing, information marketing, affiliate marketing, there are plenty. More people will make more money online in 2017 than they did in 2016. It is no longer a secret that people make full income on the internet. By the way, if you plan on starting a blog in 2017, I wrote an article on top 18 blog topic ideas that should make you the most money. Check it out and let me know what you think.
11. TECH BUSINESS
The Nigerian tech industry is in the spotlight for many good reasons. We have seen Nigerians develop award winning apps like OkadaBooks, Find-A-Med, BudgIT, AfriNolly, etc. Because the tech industry is proving very lucrative, more people will look to explore their creative tech side in 2017. Tech bloggers like OgbongeBlog and NaijaTechGuide have been making money for a long time now. I expect more people to follow their lead in 2017. This is a brilliant opportunity for the tech person.
12. PROGRAMMING/CODING TUTORIALS
There are two ways to make money through what you know: you can do what you know and you can teach people how to do what you know. For our tech industry to keep booming, people will need ways to learn coding/programming.
13. TRANSPORTATION
Like real estate, every year will always be a good year for transportation. Uber has challenged the way transportation works in Nigeria and now we see startups like FindMyRide and GoMyWay creating innovations in the transport sector. Taxi drivers are no longer the old men driving rickety cars, polluting everywhere with smoke. You too can make money in transportation. The opportunities are endless.
14. LOCAL PRODUCTION
When Governor Ayade of Cross River state unveiled the Calabar garment factory in September, 2016, it became further proof that local production is the way to go as opposed to importation. Tissue paper production, soap production, toothpicks, matches, cement, I cannot begin to list all the things you can make money from producing in Nigeria. Our import sector has taken a huge hit following our FOREX problems. Many importers would rather settle to producing things locally instead of paying exorbitant rates on importation.
15. PRIVATE LABELING
Private labeling means you don’t have to spend huge amounts on machinery or factory before you have something produced in your name. Entrepreneur Dilim Okeke made a convincing case for private labeling in her new book, Business Big Time. It is a book every entrepreneur should read. It details new and affordable ways of getting into the production business without spending tons of money.
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This article first appeared www.nextnaijaentrepreneur.com/