I tried to see what the problems of most small businesses are on the popular RantHq facebook group sometimes ago, to see what’s bothering people’s minds about their business growths and these are what I discovered based on many responses.
Apart from the problem of MONEY which is normal, the other big problems are patronage and getting customers.
Many others also reported problems with doing sponsored ads on Facebook and many don’t want to pay to do it.
Others want to grow their followers on Instagram page, to make more customers.
I tried to react and attend to many of these questions as much as possible but I can’t answer all, because of time.
Well, for all of these, there are solutions to all.
(1) For MONEY – The solution is not begging online, disturbing strangers, shouting I need money for my business everyday or hoping for miracle. If you don’t give money easily to people begging online, there are chances that people like you are many online who also don’t have any money to give anybody. What then is the solution, It’s simple. You have to follow the realistic way of raising capital. Talk to your family, close friends, or get a job and save. If already have a small business doing well, you can write a business plan and pitch for loan online. If money is so important for you to start. If you need more on this, you can contact me, I valuable information in my book on how to go about raising capital for your small business Idea.
(2) For PATRONAGE and CUSTOMERS – The first thing is to look for your target customers, where they are and go for them. You are reselling cutlass, hoes and Agrochemicals, you need to move to village side or agrarian communities etc. You are selling cooked food, you can localise your business around schools, garages, factories, markets, mechanic workshops, don’t just rent shop anywhere. Location is key. If you are selling online, there are ways through which people do this. You can get this my book, I wrote about two to three chapters on this. I believe it will be useful for you.
(3) SOCIAL FOLLOWERS: For people who want to grow their followers on social media especially on INSTAGRAM. The real truth is that it takes time to build followers. It doesn’t happen suddenly except you are strategic about it. Here are few things you can do to get followers suddenly.
(i) GO VIRAL: You can make yourself go viral. Yeah it works. You remember the guy who Photoshoped Suzu and DINO, he used his skills to announce himself.
Things people do to go viral are; by being controversial, writing sensible contents or posts, posting funny contents or pictures, writing on something appalling or emotional about themselves that draw attention or writing about their experience or story.
(ii) GET A NICHE: You can create a niche for yourself that make your page irresistible and you can make name for yourself through this. Study what you like and post on them often. You can look for few things very few people talk about or are scared to write about or are not knowledgeable about. It could SEX, MORAL VALUES, SOCIAL ISSUES, etc
It could also be normal things like trending songs, movies, skits, gossiping about gists (people follow people who always have latest gists online). Others could be about Business politics too, community news, relationship, or religion. Just attract those who are interested in same thing as you, soon the followers will lead to buyers
(iii) TEACH SOMETHING FREELY: Many people online are always not ready to pay for most knowledge or skills, they either don’t see why they should give you money for teaching them new things or they tell you they don’t have money. If you don’t mind to teach freely like me, be ready to have huge followers of people wanting to learn freely and few who could pay. I started teaching many things online freely and not until recently, I rarely collect money for most things I should charge for. If you don’t mind doing this, then it helps.
(iii) BUY ACCOUNTS: Yes, you can buy facebook groups, pages, Instagram pages, Twitter accounts with a good number of followers already. You can buy accounts with 10k followers to even 500k followers. There are guys online, whose job is to create pages And groups, and they sell it later for money. When you buy these groups, you can change the name to your own business name.
Just be sure the accounts are those with followers that are engaging and not spam or bots, as good for nothing accounts, where followers mostly are dummies, otherwise you are only wasting your money.
(iii) CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS: If you have tried many things and all of the above and you still don’t see results in patronage or customers, then two thing are possible. You are either selling things people don’t need, or the business is not for you. Switch to Something else. Basketmouth the comedian started as a rapper, it was a terrible journey before he switched to comedy. PSsquare started with Football in JOS, then they switched to MUSIC.. If what you are doing is currently leading you no where after all efforts, then you may rethinking and take a detour. SWITCH.
But then, study yourself first, don’t just search for new business Ideas, or opportunities, know yourself and the kind of Business skills you have that will make you do well in certain Businesses.
I just feel these are little ways we can use to add value to ourselves, especially our businesses in 2022.
I wish us all the best in this new year. Money will come, customers will come. Just take actions.
© Elufowora Eluyemi
