10 Things Every Small Business Owner in Nigeria Needs To Do in 2024

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Running a business in Nigeria is no easy feat, especially in 2024. You could sleep and wake up the next morning to a new policy that could leave your business in shambles, the cost of living is increasing by the day and you’ll have to figure out creative ways to reduce business costs in today’s economy. On top of all these, you have to hustle customers, manage the business, and have a life.

It can be a whole lot!

But hey, your business has to go on and even more importantly, it has to flourish. For you to achieve that, especially in 2024, there are some core things you must not overlook this year as a business owner, whether you’re just starting or have been in the game for a while.

These things? Let’s call them the foundation your business must stand on this year.

10 Things Every Small Business Owner in Nigeria Needs To Do

1. Talk to your customers

Your customers are the most important part of your business - they’re the reason you exist and also the people you’re providing a service to or solving a problem for. This means that what they think about your business is very vital. Talk to your customers to get their opinion on what they like and don’t like, and what they think about your products and service.

You could do this by calling them; people always want to talk and share their opinions, if asked politely. You can also put out surveys and incentivise them for their responses. The important thing is getting that feedback - both positive and negative - and using it to make your business better for your customers.

2. Study your competitors

It’s not easy finding time to do everything your business requires, which is why you should invest in affordable small business software in 2024 and make some of your processes easier so that you can have more time to do things like stalking your competitors.

Once you’ve figured out the businesses that could be competing with you, it’s important to keep an eye on them. Things like how they market their products, how they price their items, and how they handle customers, are important and can help you improve your own business.

3. Leverage tools and tech

There are so many great tools designed to fasten and simplify processes for your business in 2024, and it’s time to start taking advantage of them. For example, you can create professional invoices with an invoice generator in minutes, create a business website yourself without writing code from scratch and increase your online reach, use inventory management software to automate your inventory processes, and so much more. Using the right tools takes away the stress of dealing with mundane tasks, and you’ll be able to focus more energy on running and growing your business.

Related: 5 Best Apps for Managing your Small Business Online with Ease

4. Pay more attention to the data

It’s no longer time to run a business on speculations and guesses because that’s one great way to waste time and money. This is where data comes in.

Tracking data for your business helps you make better business decisions and measure business growth. Otherwise, you’re going to be running on vibes. The best part is that it’s 2024, and you don’t have to do this by yourself. With a tool like Bumpa, you not only get reports on business performance, but you can also see important business data on sales, customers and product performance, from a single dashboard. Download the app to set up in minutes and start tracking valuable data to help your business grow.

Related: 7 Ways That Business Analytics & Data Can Help Your Business Grow

5. Listen online and stay on top of (marketing) trends

While you don’t have to be chronically online as a business owner, it’s important to be there and listen to the chatter on trends, both in marketing and other industries. This will help you be aware of things that are happening around you and how they could affect your business, and help you plan ahead of time to cushion the effect.

Online listening also helps you know what’s being said about your business, whether it’s good or bad. You could set up Google Alerts to help you not miss anything when your business is mentioned.

6. Invest in marketing

This would typically seem like advice that doesn’t need to be given, but more than just spending on marketing, it’s important to do it right. Most businesses shy away from investing in marketing because they worry about ROI, but that’s one of the great things about data. For example, if you know where your customers are coming from or what they’re buying the most, it can inform your decision to spend some money on that sales channel to bring in more look-alike customers.

Related: 10 Simple Hacks for Marketing your Business

7. Manage your cash

Managing cash for a business, especially in a country like Nigeria is often a tricky situation, but it is now more crucial than ever, especially if you want to record any business profits at the end of the year. Plan how to spend your cash, especially on things like inventory, resources and operations. For example, stocking inventory that won’t sell out as fast can be detrimental to the financial health of your business. This is another reason why you need to study your business’s data for better decisions.

Related: 10 Ways to Manage your Finances as a Business Owner

8. Improve your customer service

Customers are the lifeline of your business and it’s important to keep them coming back, mostly because it costs more to acquire a new customer than it does to remarket to a previous customer and make more sales from them. One of your key strategies should be improving your customer service and making sure customers get the best experience from you. Interestingly, this is a low-hanging fruit because most businesses in Nigeria don’t treat their customers right, so you should be taking advantage of this to stand out with your customer service.

9. Cultivate strategic partnerships

It’s nice to think you can do it all on your own, and you may be able to, but the truth is that partnerships increase your chances of doing even more with your business. A strategic partnership will open you up to a wider audience, some with customers you may not have been able to access or convince on your own.

10. Have a mission and vision for your business

Business owners and entrepreneurs often start a business with no reason behind the business beyond ‘I need to make more money’. Making money is fantastic but there’s one thing that will always push you even further beyond making money, and that’s understanding the reason behind what you’re doing. The vision, and the mission behind the business you’re running.

Even if you’re starting or your business is still small, you need a vision and a mission for your business. Your mantra, more than anything, will give you the mental strength you need to push on even on hard days.

Do More For Your Business in 2024 with Bumpa

In a world where time is moving fast, and everything seems to be in hard mode, leveraging tech and tools helps ease some processes. Bumpa is an all-in-one tool to help you manage your business and take away the stress of doing things manually. With Bumpa you can:

1. Get a fully functional website for selling online immediately after you sign up.

2. See business data and performance on sales, products, customers, website visits and revenue, from one dashboard.

3. Automate and manage inventory, track product history and get notified when you’re running low on stock.

4. Track, manage and ship off orders.

5. Save customer information and run marketing campaigns via email and SMS.

6. Create coupons and discounts for sales campaigns in minutes.

7. Create invoices and receipts for your customers in seconds.

8. Manage cart abandonment with features to help you convert.

9. Connect to Instagram and close sales faster.

10. Manage transactions, payments and more with more ease.

You can download the app, set it up in minutes, and start doing more for your business with tech!

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