Udemezue John
Introduction.
Are you just about to start a business? Do you want to be free from the stress of 9-5 jobs? Do you want to own and control your destiny? If yes, then the only way to go about becoming an entrepreneur; before moving further, let me quickly define who an entrepreneur is.
An entrepreneur is an individual who sets up business or businesses, identifies and solves problems, is creative, innovative, opportunist, risk-taker, self-starter, and open-minded with the hope of making a profit from the enterprise.
Yes, now that you know what entrepreneurship is, you should also know that apart from the monetary benefits attached to entrepreneurs, you need to understand the level of risk involved; you should also note that entrepreneurship consists in venturing into an unknown world with so many uncertainties.
Back to what we have to discuss in this article, the only way to become financially free and independent is by becoming an entrepreneur; trust me, no 9-5 job or wages can outweigh the benefits of entrepreneurship; most of these benefits include the fact that you control your own time, destiny and even finances, you get to travel wherever you want and also do whatever you love to do, right? But unfortunately, even CEOs of multinational companies with heavyweight salaries and compensation do not have that liberty, as they are still owned by the company they work for.
These sets of people, no matter who they are and how qualified they are, do not own their own lives as they work day and night to manage someone’s else corporation.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad to run a 9-5 job, and not everyone is going to start a business; the world needs to be balanced, just as not everyone is going to become successful at the same time, Some people need to be on the ground to become stepping stones for others.
Almost every successful entrepreneur you see today once worked for 9-5 jobs before starting a business; most time, these people can put together the experience that they gathered over the years working in someone’s else corporation to start their own business.
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This article is not in any way written to spite anyone on their present status; anyone can choose to become an entrepreneur at any time of their life, the founder of KFC, Colonel Sanders, started at 65, Mark Zuckerberg began at 23, I jumped at 19, so you cannot be late when it comes to entrepreneurship, it all begins when you identify problems, provide solution and monetize it.
List of Business Ventures To Avoid as a Starter
This article will deal centrally with some people who have chosen the entrepreneurship path but are doing so wrong by starting a lousy business.
The world is full of half-baked people who are trying to go into the business world, the reason why we have more failures and only a few people succeeding in the world of global business. In this article, I will be making a complete list of companies you should not waste your time venturing into.
1. Clothing Lines.
A fashion collection is a selection of outfits and individual garments that fashion designers put together every season. The collections reflect predictions of upcoming trends, including colour, fabrics, cut, line and proportion. A group will often include a variety of styles, such as evening wear, sportswear, outerwear, etc.
Owning a clothing line has become one of the most common businesses by every who wants to test the waters as an entrepreneur.
There are thousands of clothing lines worldwide today, most of which have existed for ages, while some of the other successful ones are owned by successful celebrities worldwide.
Owning a clothing line is not a bad idea, but you should not venture into this business if you have no idea of how the market works; if you think that the existing market is going to jump at your new clothing line, then you must be joking, maybe you have a concrete and strategic marketing plan, or you have the necessary influence like Kanye West or Beyonce needed to push a product then its a win for you.
But on the other hand, you should consider the cost of operation, logistics, materials and distribution. Is it worth the time and energy?
2. Starting a Parfume brand.
The global perfume market is presumed to witness a compound annual growth rate of 3.9% from 2019 to 2025 to reach USD 40.91 billion by 2025. With many more people producing fragrances to meet the market demand, you must establish your target audience to set yourself apart.
Creating your perfume line means total creative control over every aspect. Before launching a perfume line, you need to outline your business plan. That includes setting your company objectives, organising supply chain and logistics, and managing cash flow. The last step is to market your products and find ways for customers to buy.
The answer is yes if you have the appropriate knowledge and focus. Many factors will determine how profitable you are and what your profit margins will be like.
I don’t see why you should start a perfume brand as a first-time business venture because it takes someone who has already taken care of the basics of life such as food, clothing and shelter to take an extra step to smell nice; if you ask me, good soap and constant bathing could wipe away body odour without using a different set of perfumes.
I am not condemning this business idea, but you have to be someone influential or do something different from what is already in the market.
3. Jewellery Line.
Now you are thinking about starting a jewellery business because you fell in love with it as a hobby while growing up, or maybe you’ve already created it, and you discovered that it is not what you imagined that turned out to be.
Now, jewellery making and selling your jewellery are two entirely different things. So there’s a lot to consider when transitioning from a jewellery side hobby to a money-making business.
It might seem impossible to become a jeweller designer without years of training and fantastic art skills, but this is far from the truth. In reality, starting a fine jewellery line has never been easier.
You can outsource it to a local jewellery maker and brand it to be yours most of the time. Experience can be helpful; they aren’t a necessity. And you don’t need to learn any complex 3d CAD software to make your first jewellery piece.
Starting a Jewellery business can be just another investment going down the drain because of the market’s volatility; just a few people fancy Jewell just as you do, so If you are not bringing anything extra to your Jewellery line, then it can become a waste of time.
Another thing to consider when starting a Jewellery line is the method of promotion; if you don’t have an adequate marketing strategy, then you are bound to fail.
4. Social Media Influencing.
Over the last decade, we have seen social media increase in just a few years of establishment. According to January 2019, there was a report that over 3.484 billion people actively use social media – that’s 45% of the world’s population, with more still being added each year.
Inescapably these people look up to influencers on social media to guide them with their decision making.
Influencers in social media are people who have built a reputation for their experience and expertise on a specific topic. They make regular posts about that topic on their preferred social media channels and generate massive followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views.
They may be anyone from a blogger to a celebrity to an online entrepreneur and capitalize on a niche to attain widespread credibility.
Since Instagram’s content is easily digested as images or short videos, it encourages more peer-to-peer sharing, which helps brands leverage storytelling through Stories to improve their target audience reach.
Their audience isn’t limited to their actual followers; they can connect with the followers of their followers who share their content. As a result, they engage in many sponsored posts, allowing them to be paid for what they share on Instagram.
Brands love social media influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy the products they promote.
I see so many young people trying to become social media influencers without any experience or topical authority in mind; most times, they try to build a following based on false assumptions.
The majority of them even lie as much as possible to convince their respective audiences to believe what they are not, and this can make such a person engage in non-productive tasks.
Becoming a social media influencer is not a bad idea, but starting with no topical authority or specific area of concentration can cause you to lose relevance.
I wrote a comprehensive guide on this blog on how to help you get started with social media influencing; click the link below to get started.
5. Dropshipping Business.
Dropshipping is an order fulfilment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, the store purchases the item from a third-party supplier and has it shipped to the customer. As a result, the seller doesn’t have to handle the product directly.
The most significant difference between dropshipping and the standard retail model is that the selling merchant doesn’t stock or own inventory. Instead, the seller purchases inventory as needed from a third party—usually a wholesaler or manufacturer—to fulfil orders.
Dropshipping business is one that I advise new business starters to avoid because you are most likely to fake so much, which might cause you to encounter problems with your customers in the long run.
In dropshipping business, you don’t sell or produce your product; all you will ever be is a middleman; this calls in for questioning because you were not part of the manufacturing process, and little information is likely made available to you by the manufacturers, this will eventually affect the way you market this product from listing to delivery.
Another downside of starting a dropshipping business is that you need an effective marketing strategy that requires spending a lot of money; I feel not everyone would be able to spend that amount of money and not get tangible results in the long run.
I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to help you launch your dropshipping business, click the link below to get started.
6. Being a Life and Business coach.
Many people want to mentor people about life and business and still have full-time jobs or are trying to transition to the business world.
The problem with people like this is that they don’t have enough experience with how things go in the business world.
They can’t teach you to build a successful business; becoming a business coach, for example, requires tons of experience in the world of business, and of course, you know that not many people readily have that experience.
As a business coach, you will meet people on their way to building a multi-business empire; they need help from someone who has done that before.
However, you are not just there yet, so I recommend you drop off that line of a career of being a business coach and do the real thing first before coming to teach people how to run their business.
7. Multilevel Marketing.
Network marketing is a business model that depends on sales by independent representatives, often working from home. A network marketing business may require you to build a network of business partners or salespeople to assist with lead generation and closing sales.
Multilevel marketing is one business model I see every day, and as a young person, I was so drawn to the mouth-watering results that they publish in their magazines; I did try to join the majority of these companies in my early years but was not able to hit any breakthrough with it at all.
The downside of being in network marketing is that you get to promote a company’s product that you know little or nothing about; most times, you are forced to market in an industry you are not familiar with.
Health and wellness is one industry that is popular with Network marketing companies globally. Still, the downside is that the products are marketed via non-health practitioners who are being forced to build a chain of distribution among anyone they can find.
Another downside about network marketing is that they try to work on your faith and make you feel that you can make it on their platform, and all you need do is be positive and market the hell out of your life.
Hmm, coming positively, I think it’s a good thing, but you have to put yourself first in all that you do; for you to be able to pay the sign-up fees, you already need to have something working in your life.
It would help if you had money and influence to successfully run a network marketing business. However, when you look at the people on top in those organizations, you discover that they have built a much better brand than you will do in an extended period.
Most of them have become successful in their careers and respective business before choosing a network marketing side-hustle.
However, the good thing about network marketing is that it gives you much more reason to be an independent person; all I am today all started from network marketing, I was not able to pull it off back then, but I learnt a lot from it, right now after so many years of working on my brand and influence, if you ask me about networking, I would still give it a thumb up.
I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to get you started with network marketing; click the link below to get started.
8. Forex Trading.
A forex trader buys and sells currencies in the global foreign exchange market. Forex traders can be full-time professional traders who earn living trading forex or part-time investors dabbling in forex for a side income.
Forex trading is one thing I see the majority do as a source of income, and I feel horrible; it’s funny how people are trying to hack their way into making quick money.
Trust me, forex is not a bad idea, but you should understand that it is volatile.
With no control over macroeconomic and geopolitical developments, one can easily suffer huge losses in the volatile forex market.
If things go wrong with a particular stock, shareholders can pressure management to initiate necessary changes and alternatively approach regulators.
Another mistake I see most forex traders make is collecting money from investors in the name of trading for profits and giving them back their money; most times, things eventually go south, and a lot of money is lost.
I don’t do Forex trading in any kind, but I recommend you do your research as much as possible before going into it.
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