Enterprise Issues
With Siaka Momoh
They may be so close to you but you wouldn’t see them. Should one say only the informed eyes can see them? May be, or may be one that is led by the spirit, one that God has destined to see these hot stuffs that can change destiny.
Organizing clutter
For example, have you ever thought that it is good business to help a company or some individuals organize their clutter, their mess that pile up daily or piled up over time? As a journalist for instance (I guess this is the case with my colleagues too) my bedroom is a mess of papers – books, journals, newspapers, magazines (old and new) – literatures of all kinds. It is a big task for me to organize them and throw some of them away if need be.
Offices of all kinds have similar problem. Same goes for bookshops and printing companies. Closets are overflowing with clothes that you don’t need – there are many of them that you have not worn for two years or more; living rooms and kitchens are littered with disgusting items; furniture need to be changed or refurbished. So the glut of clutter in homes and offices is big business opportunity for home-improvement or home-makeover entrepreneurs.
A hot idea
This reminds one of the job-loss menace that the nation’s economy is currently saddled with. Take this hot idea: A construction company once got a contract to build a rail line cutting across a vast area of land. At a point along the route the rail should pass through, there was a problem – an obstruction, a mass of solid rock. That was not all. The company cut through the rock and behold water started gushing out of the rock.
The company’s mandate was to construct a railway not a waterway. All the company’s tested engineers were at a loss on what to do. But a solution came from an operative, a mere operative in the company. A hot idea! What was it? He was thirsty and had to drink some of the knotty water. He found it very soothing. He went on to his boss and suggested to him that it would be a good idea if the company bottled the water for sale. The company did and today the product is the best table water in Italy.
Table water
These ideas are with us. We only need to spot them. A few years back, when under-aged children sold water in polyethylene along Lagos streets, no one knew it was a big idea selling table water in sachets. For years Ragolis sold table water. Many didn’t know it was a big idea. Swan table water came on later, and today it is everybody’s business, even multinationals like May and Baker, Nestle, Nigerian Bottling Company Plc. bottlers of Coca Cola range of soft drinks, etc. do, churning in millions of naira.
Alternative energy
Today, investment in alternative energy is a big idea and it will be a wise business decision to go into it now. The industrial world knows and they are paying good attention to it. Amanda C. Kooser of the Entrepreneur online says “with unstable gas prices and increasing environmental awareness, an alternative energy business could put you on the road to success”. He cited the case of Justin Carven of Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems LLC. He explains “The 29-year-old founder’s Easthampton, Massachusetts, business makes conversion kits that allow diesel engines to run on vegetable oil.
“Ultimately, it’s the rising fuel prices that are convincing people to get on board,” says Carven. Greasecar sales have grown by more than 200 percent each year over the past couple of years… And the company is jumping into the commercial and municipal markets with enthusiasm.” We have all the potentials to invest in alternative energy here too.
Building houses
There is also this idea of building houses with treated wood which an aspiring entrepreneur at the Pan Atlantic University YouWin selection session which held in Ajah Lagos had. This is a good one that will make Nigerians depend less on cement. It is a hot business idea. In fact, the young man shared the idea reluctantly with his group.
Coconut oil and coconut water
Coconut oil and coconut water manufacturing are hot business ideas too. You are familiar with this wonder products story already – we have shared them with you on this platform in two editions.
Digital journalism
Digital journalism is another hot one. It has truly emerged in Nigeria, and it is really waxing strong, puffing its muscles across the nation’s media space. And the space welcomes it with all business pleasantness. This new journalism has very promising prospects. Don Tap Scott, author and business executive, says we are heading towards a world with a global digital internet worked infrastructure that can support the majority of business and leisure activities. For him, “In this age, there will be little need for corporations to have physical manifestation; in place of the large corporate campus will be a network of ‘molecules’ that can perform functions as cheaply and efficiently as possible”. That is the new face of journalism for you.
