12 Online Business Opportunities in Nigeria That Requires Low Investments

12 Online Business Opportunities in Nigeria That Requires Low Investments

The realization that has hit the world in the last decade is that in order to be wealthy you can’t depend on a salary earning job. The employers of a typical 8 – 5 job are the ones who wield wealth, because they had the foresight to create a business instead of working for a business.

In a time of global evolution, the internet has become one of the major indispensable tools of success that cannot be overemphasized, connecting people across space and time.

To avoid the drudgery of a typical paid job and the capital intensive needs of starting a business, this list provides you with some of the best sources of low capital online business opportunities and how to effectively start them.

What is the importance of having your own online business?

The answer to this lies in financial security. Imagine graduating after four years of demanding academic study with the hopes of acquiring a job and financial independence. After the acquisition of a very good job that pays you a good salary, you begin to encounter the problem that comes with earning a fixed salary – financial management. Human needs are insatiable and no matter how high your salary is, it just may never be enough to accomplish your goals. After the deduction of all necessary expenses, what you have left isn’t usually enough for the big dreams of vacationing, world tour, real estate ownership etc.

Now think, there always is a retirement age, no matter how good you are. So you will either be laid off or asked to retire at a point in your life. The question now is do you want to be the sort who relies on pension or who doesn’t even remember it exists?

 

Some of these businesses may take a long time to come into fruition while others bring in quick income but all in all, they’re all worth it.

Business Opportunities in Nigeria That Requires Low Investments      

1. Affiliate Marketing.

This simply put, is a means of promoting goods and services online without being the owner of such goods and earning a certain percentage the owner makes on sales through your promotion. There are many companies looking to employ affiliate marketers to promote their businesses online. When a company or brand employs you for affiliate marketing, a unique ID and URL – a unique web link, is given to you for promotional use. For instance, when a company employs you to promote sales for their goods online, you can decide to run an ad on Facebook for that company with your unique URL. When people click on this URL and buy goods from the company, the sale is automatically registered as gotten through you. Depending on your pre-bargain, the agreed commision on each sale or a group of sales is then paid into your account. You can decide to share your link via bulk mail, online ads, social media pages and blogs etc.

How can you become an affiliate marketer?

It should be noted that affiliate marketing involves providing useful information about a product which induces the buyer to make the purchase decision, so it is best to first consider choosing goods you already know in order to provide better information. Affiliate marketing isn’t about scamming people into buying fake products or products that do not work, so it is best to promote goods you have probably tested and trust to work. Think in the long run, if you promote random goods and embellish their importance, eventually the general populace will tag it as scam and sales will cease but promoting a product with positive results will generate increasing sales in the long run.

You can also find affiliate marketing jobs through Affiliate Networks such as Clickbank, eBay Partner Network, Amazon Associates Program, CJ Affiliate etc.

2. Blogging

This is one of the most lucrative and trending sources of online income. A blog is a website or page that basically provides information or where discussions are made.

What is Blogging?

Blogging simply is the regular creation of content on a chosen niché. It entails building up an audience that trusts you and then providing services and products for that audience. Such services may include advertising. Some blogs aren’t niché specific; they are general and address a wide range of topics.

Blogs have become one of the major sources of spreading information and receiving news. One of the benefits of running a blog is the content ease that comes with it; it is your blog, you can decide whatever you want to post on it.

How do you make money from a blog?        

Bloggers generally make money through affiliate marketing, running ads, products and sponsored posts. When you’ve built an audience, you can actively put up spaces for paid advertisements but in most cases, they’ll seek you out themselves.

How can you start your very own blog?                       

Starting a blog can take as little as 30 minutes. First choose a blogging platform, WordPress is one of the most popular of such platforms and it is free, with millions of active users on it. We also have platforms such as Tumblr which is majorly picture oriented and Blogger.

Create and account on any of these platforms and you are guided through the rest.

There are also paid blogging platforms you can register on or you can own your own domain and blog on it. Then proceed to designing your blog.

Don’t forget that in all you do, your audience matters most. Learn to respect them and offer trustable services to them.

3. E-commerce

This also is another trending source of online income. E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services online. Companies like Jumia and Konga are the Nigerian variations of Amazon and eBay.

E-commerce can come in the form of creating your personal website for the purpose of buying and selling your goods or foods acquired from different sources. It can also come in the form of creating platforms where various buyers and sellers can come together to connect and acquire services best suited to their needs.

In order to start this business, you don’t have to own the goods you will be putting up for sale. You can contact manufacturers and suppliers who’ll send pictures you can put up. It is necessary to contact your suppliers from time to time, to ensure the availability of the goods you have put up so you can either bring them down or tag them properly as out-of-stock or in-stock goods.

When customers order specific goods, you order from your supplier who sends them to you and you in turn send it to your client. It is also necessary to make sure you have agreed on a speedy delivery method from your supplier to yourself.

In most cases, sellers already have the goods they put up for sale in stock. This is the standard retail process.

You can also visit Nigerian markers and take pictures of their goods on agreement and put them on your site for sale.

4. Dropshipping   

This is a variation of e-commerce, with a substantial difference of not owning or even coming in contact with any of the ordered goods.

Dropshipping is one of the easiest ways of making money online. There’s hardly any need for capital to start this business. All you need is an internet connected device. Read more about dropshipping here

How does dropshipping work?

Dropshipping is when an online store without requisite stock of goods is created but still offers products for sale. As the online store owner, you contact the supplier and order the goods that have already been ordered from your store and then have them sent directly to the client.

Platforms such as AliExpress, Orbelo and 1688 connect you with thousands of suppliers you can directly contact and bargain with.

5. Translation/Transcription

While some transcription jobs require professional experience, most of them only require proficiency in certain areas. With time and experience, one can even attain the professional level without certification and only recommendations.

This job entails listening to voice or video recordings and transcribing them into written documents. It requires patience and excellent typing and listening skills.

Practice is required in this sphere and you can start by downloading random audio recordings and transcribing them in order to gain skill.

Some transcribers limit themselves to specialized fields such as law or medicine or psychology, this enables refined skills.

How do you become a transcriptionist?

There are several online courses available. Luckily it doesn’t require extensive training to become one but if you want to specialize in certain fields you may need to get a certification or degree as a legal or medical transcriptionist.

 

What do you need as a transcriptionist?  

You need transcription software such as Otrancribe, Inqscribe, Transcribe, The FTW Transcriber etc. They are available for free while some are to be paid for, you’ll also need a good pair of headphones, a foot pedal, familiarity with word processing and other word office tools and a very good internet connection .

6. Online Coaching   

This is one of the most lucrative jobs you can engage in from the comfort of your home.

When people hear coaching or thinking, they limit their understanding of the word to academic tutoring when there are more available possibilities.

As a graduate of a specific course, you are a professional who can register to impact your knowledge for a fee. Vocational trading can also be done online. Teaching of painting, embroidery, foreign languages and etiquette can all be done via sites that offer video learning.

How do you become an online tutor?      

There are top sites such as Upwork, Udemy, Fiver, Coursera, that give individuals the opportunity to register and create their courses for a fee. Sites such as Upwork and Fiverr give you the opportunity to create accounts and take specialist tests to ascertain you really have knowledge of what you offer. Once these tests are passed, you are certified and your page is opened to the public.

7. Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant simply offers administrative services to a company or an organization from the comfort of his or her home. You can be employed as a customer service agent, to analyze work documents, to analyze tax, organize travel arrangements, wire projects, manage social media profiles etc. The truth is there is no exact specification for the kind of job a virtual assistant may be asked to do.

To become a virtual assistant, you must first decide on what type of services you want to offer and acquire skills in that regard if you do not already have them. The next thing to do is to have a set price system for different kinds of jobs which should be based, at first, on how others are charging. With experience and time, you may increase this. The next thing to do is to establish an online presence. Upwork, Fiver and Udemy are excellent platforms for this.

Sites such as Remote.co also have available job listings for virtual assistant positions. You can also google generally.

After your online presence has been established, try to build relationships and connections for the sake of referrals.

8. Programming   

This is one of the highest paying jobs online. Programming simply involves creating a computer program with codes to achieve a specific tax. Programming can be learnt on your own through books and online tutorials such as those available on YouTube for free. You can also register for paid courses that take you through the foundations of programming. These can be gotten from Udemy or Coursera.

Programming, depending on your choice, can be done from the comfort of your home or by applying for physical jobs.

Today, companies and businesses abroad seek to employ programmers all over the world while paying them in recognized currencies at very high rates.

Remote programming jobs can be searched and applied for online.

9. Stock photography

This is a limited sphere that may require passion. Traditionally, we employ photographers for events to retain memories but now, photography encompasses taking pictures for fun and compiling them, then selling them online. These are known as stock pictures.

Buying a camera may be capital intensive but nowadays the mobile device in your hands has the capacity to take astounding pictures that can be paid for.

Take pictures of things that inspire you, it may be as simple as a picture of a table in black and white or of a budding flower waiting to tell its secrets. Give your captured pictures their own life and meaning through editing. Compile them and sell them through your personal website or sites such as Shutterstcok, Fotolia, istock, Getty Images etc.

10. Freelance Content Writing

Content writing is the creation and editing of content for web pages such as article writing, blog post writing, script writing, email writing, newsletter writing, YouTube descriptions  etc. Content writing requires fluency and typing proficiency. Courses can be taken online for certification as a content writer but in most cases experience and proficiency matters most.

Ensure that while you’re writing, it isn’t filled with superfluous and boring words. No one wants to read a boring write up. Spice your writing up. Pick important topics and write on them to serve as examples of your work.  Make sure your writing is straight to the point and simple. Create guidelines before writing, to ensure you do not stray off your writing path. Try your hands at writing different articles and ask friends and families for honest criticisms.

Then go ahead to register on freelance oriented platforms that offer jobs and build your profile and out examples of your work. Fiver and Upwork also act as excellent platforms here.

11. Social Media Management

This simply is the management of the online presence of a social media account. It involves building an audience creating and liking posts, following other accounts, monitoring trends and engaging in online conversations.

Social media management is a lot of work and requires energy and knowledge to post the right things at the right time and have a dignified sense of knowledge to avoid certain responses.

Due to the high volume of time and energy social media management requires, people who do not have the time to do so, often contract it out to capable hands who have shown media management adeptness, to manage their profiles.

Sometimes, requirements such as owning and running an online account with large active followers are required. That means, you have to start this journey with your own personal account. Build your account up, make the right discussions, amass the right audiences that will give you a relative number of engagements.

A brand that seeks to employ a social media manager is looking to manage its business through the platforms. It is basically seeking to achieve certain targets and leverage its marketing. As a social media manager, always ask yourself how to achieve maximum publicity that is both safe and good.

A successful social media influence will be reached out to but you can also reach out to accounts you are interested in managing and giving them a detailed plan of what you have to offer.

12. Information Marketing           

Information marketing simply means packaging and selling of information.  Many have the secrets to success and other valuable information but have no idea how to use or sell them.

Some with the knowledge simply have no means of execution.

As an information marketer, you’ll have to learn to make the right connections and pay attention wherever you are because it’s the basic information that is popularly available, that is repackaged in this sphere and sold as valuables.

As an information marketer, you’ll need to research on things that are worth knowing and learn how to package them to have ultimate value and present them in an extraordinary manner. So when you are presenting and selling, a common idea starts to look like the beginning of generational wealth.

You can start by researching all about a company, its shortcomings, stronghold, weaknesses etc. Learn what it values and what it would like to know. Create strategies that can help it grow and then sit and analyze these information, arranging them into meaningful compounds that look attractive when presented.

ALAT DOMICILIARY ACCOUNT       

An ALAT domiciliary account is one which allows you to make and receive payments in foreign currencies which will then be valued at the current naira exchange rate. This account trumps the traditional need for Western Union, making all transactions easy and smooth, from the comfort of your phone.

It comes with such benefits as :

  • Easy payment and receipt of funds in foreign currency.
  • Considering that it is valued at the current exchange rate, you can decide to keep the money in its original state while watching out for a better exchange rate.
  • There’s no limit to how much you can receive or transfer
  • There’s no fixed minimum opening or operating balance

How to Open an ALAT by WEMA Domiciliary Account.

  1. The first step is to download the ALAT App.
  2. Then register. After registration, click the ‘Create Account’ link
  3. The next step is to choose the Domiciliary Account option
  4. Then input the necessary information asked for.

There’s a fine line between being financially independent and financially dependent. Having a typical day job doesn’t give you the financial dependence you deserve as you’re still dependent on someone handing you a fixed income, but owning your own business does.

Owning an online business opens up incomes from home and abroad, in various currencies and the best way to make sure your income is received is to open a Wema Domiciliary Account on ALAT.

Remember, a typical job rewards you with a pension or being laid off but your business, forever remains yours. Which path would it be for you?