5 Businesses You Can Start Without Breaking Your Bank

Shalom Solomon 4th June, 2021

Every year, tertiary instutions all over the world churn out millions of graduates into the labour market.

Nigeria alone produces an estimated amount of 500,000 graduates annually. This number is excluding Nigerian graduates from foreign universities or colleges.

This is a substantial shift from the 50,000 graduates annually produced 20 years ago.

While this a marked improvement it is also alarming when the issue of unemployment comes up.

My Job Mag holds that Nigeria has a population of over 21.7 million unemployed people.

Now, guess what?

Over 2.9 million of this number are holders of graduate or post graduate degrees. A majority of them are also between the ages of 15 and 35.

It is obvious that the problem is not a skilled or educated labour force. The major problem is: are there jobs for these job seekers?

Sadly, the answer is no.

Now, nobody hopes or plans to graduate from a tertiary institution and remain unemployed. Infact almost everybody goes to a university to increase their qualifications and subsequently improve their employability.

But life doesn't play fair at times and we might not get the jobs we want or get any job at all.

In situations like these, are we to sit and fold our hands? No.

According to George Burns,

"don't stay in bed unless you can make money there".

So what do you do?

If there are no job opportunities in the labour market, create one for yourself.

How?

Start a business!

It must not be a grand affair. Even if you still plan to do a white collar job in the future, a business would keep your hands busy for a while and provide for your basic necessities. Not to talk of provide job opportunities for others.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Many people unemployed or not are reluctant to start businesses because they do not have the money to start one.

Well, there are a number of businesses especially online that do not require a lot of capital to start up.

Businesses such as:

1. Drop Shipping

Drop Shipping is a form of sales where you advertise and sell products on behalf of a third party. The third party might be a manufacturer, a company or even a business. Drop Shipping is a wonderful business because,

You do not need to stock inventory. All the goods you sell will come directly from the supplier to the customer.
Any complaints or queries will be handled directly by the supplier of the goods.
You get to earn good profit and build a client base.

2. Digital Marketing

Asides the fact that a lot of businesses especially startups are looking for digital marketing specialists, digital marketing is in high demand.

And guess what?

You don't need a lot of money to start a digital marketing business.

Digital marketing is a form of marketing that ustilises digital media especially the internet to promote, advertise and create awareness.

There are several digital marketing strategies you can pick to specialize in or you can decide to offer all forms of digital marketing services. Either way, you make money.

3. Delivery Services

Delivery services is a great business to start with little no capital at all. It is especially great if you live in a well populated area like Lagos State.

Ordering for stuff online has become popular because people want to shop at their convenience, from the comfort of their homes.

At times, some stuff cannot be bought online or some businesses do not offer delivery services.

This is where you come in, you serve as a bridge between the product and the customer. Your customers can be individuals at home or even businesses.

4. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a bit similar to digital marketing. The difference lies in the fact that your only job as an affiliate marketer is to advertise a client's product or service and you recieve a commission each time a sale is made.

Affiliate marketing is a neat way to make money online with just your smart phone.

If you can write a good copy or convince people online to buy products then you should try out Affiliate marketing.

5. Content Creation

Content creation on social media has taken a lot of people by surprise. People are making their living off content creation on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

A few or so years back, a young man went live on YouTube to slap his face for 24 hours. Believe it or not, the dude got up to 2 million people who went online to watch some body slap himself.

My point is, you don't need grand content to pull an audience on social media. If you have anything you feel others will want to see then, put it out there. It can be dance, music, comedy, your life, monologues, anything at all. There are no limits as we've seen with the example above.

Finally,

There are loads of business opportunities out there, don't let a puny thing like finances to stop you from putting your hands and amazing brains to use.

As they say, where there is will, there is a way.

I'm rooting for you. Find something to do today. Who knows you might be the one providing job opportunities for others.

Thanks for reading :-)