DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SELF EMPLOYED AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Is there really a difference between an entrepreneur and being self employed? It depends on how you choose to look at it.
Being self employed is the stage just before becoming an entrepreneur. After you're self employed, then you grow on to become an entrepreneur.

Here are some key words we would be considering and their definitions from wiki

"Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a start-up company, offering a product, process or service for sale"

"Self-employment is the act of generating one's income directly from customers through working, clients or other organizations as opposed to being an employee of a business(or person)"

"Capitalist - a wealthy person who uses money to invest in trade and industry for profit in accordance with the principles of capitalism"

From the definition of entrepreneurship above, we can deduce that anyone who would be an entrepreneur is thought to start small and grow big, meanwhile, self employment involves getting your money directly from customers and is opposed to being an employee of someone else other than yourself.
Lets look at it this way, for a self employed person who is usually the owner of a small business, the product being sold, whether its in form of a service or physical product, is usually built around the self-employed person, because you're the one that deals directly with the customers who generate the income for the business. If you're a good salesman/woman, your customers begin to trust you probably even more than your product if you have good communications skills, making yourself the major product or an integral part of what you offer. Self employment then means your customers pay you salary. Your customers become your boss, and later on, the business becomes your boss. You're still employed, but by a more lenient boss. The day you are not around to run the business, you probably don't earn any salary.

An entrepreneur should be a capitalist. From the definition above, the entrepreneur is first a small business starter and then becomes more of an investor and in most cases, the investor is barely involved in the business directly, its the cash-flow that interests the investor, not necessarily the working of the business.
The major reason why most people want to be entrepreneurs is to gain freedom. Freedom from a 9-5 job, freedom from your boss, freedom to go out when they want etc. All this freedom luxury isn't available for most self-employed because they still have bosses, either the customer or the business.
Remember your economics class on the four factors of production and their rewards: Land - Rent, Labour - Wages/salary, Capital - Interest, Entrepreneurship - Profit.
The goal of every self-employed person, is to grow into an entrepreneur/capitalist. If you can do this, then your small business becomes an investment and whether or not the entrepreneur is present, this time he keeps earning dividends/cash-flow/profit but not salary. Its the self employed who is a labourer for his business earns salary instead.
You're still self employed if your employees would call you before making any sales decision in the office, you're still part of the product. You're still self employed if your employees cannot run your business smoothly if you're not in the office. True freedom and entrepreneurship is when you can take a vacation at anytime  and be rest assured your cash-flow would keep going up. One major reason most small businesses never scale through being small is because the self-employed person only trusts himself to run his business. Trust issues were probably even the reason your previous boss in the office was harsh on you. Learn to trust people by employing the right people and adapting the right systems to run your business effectively. Be the boss you wanted your former boss to be. When your business system isn't well developed, then it becomes a struggle for money between you and your employees to monitor cash-flow. Imagine how bosses of multinational companies maintain thousands of staff and the company's revenue keeps going up. Before you start your business, think, strategize and research on your expansion plan so you wont just be self-employed but you will graduate to being an entrepreneur and a capitalist.

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PROFIT AND LOGISTICS

Product pickup and delivery

Do you know about online stores? Of course, we all do, except if you live outside this digitized age, you should understand what an online store is.

But do you understand how the whole process works? From the production to the delivery stage, its all handled by individuals like me and you. For those of us who think its a computer that does most of the work, I'm sorry but you're wrong. All the computer does is to accept and save images and prices, calculate your order fee and notify your seller/store merchant. Every other process till you get your ordered product is handled by individuals.

We now live in a digitized age where online markets are getting bigger and securing more patronage than physical brick and mortar stores. The major cause of this drift is CONVENIENCE PURCHASE and the most important feature of convenience purchase is home delivery. Online payment, pay on delivery, compare price and the likes are all under the back bone of HOME DELIVERY. Home delivery is done by logistics firms/agents.

Some facts about logistics.
* Its in high demand
* You can be a freelancer and start small
* Its very lucrative, regardless of fuel scarcity or fuel price
* There are so many platforms that can aid your success
* It has a steady market
* It requires good pressure management and accounting skills

The good news is you can start your own logistics firm and begin receiving orders soonest.
You would need a bike or bikes to start with. For a small starter, that's probably the most important machine you would need. The next stage is to make your self known to merchants on online stores and website owners. A good way to do this is to register yourself as a logistic firm on online stores. A couple online stores even grant you the leverage to list yourself on their seller services such as Konga-seller-services etc. You should also send mails to websites that sell products that need to be delivered. You would be surprised at your feedback rate.
You might also want to consider making business cards to you give your customers for professionalism. V-connect is also a good place to register yourself as a logistics merchant.
Note# you must know how to arrange customer accounts in order of product type, delivery contact, seller contact etc.

If you would be the one doing the delivery yourself, then you must know how to navigate yourself very well within your state of location, but if you will be employing a rider/riders, make sure they are conversant with the state they reside in. You should also make sure you have adequate information about your riders and if possible, a surety who can stand for them should in case something goes wrong. God forbid there is a case of a rider fleeing with goods to be delivered, the surety would be your insurance.
Don't overlook insurance for a logistics business. Products could get damaged, delivered to the wrong address or any other mishap, so the expenses don't get out of hand, make sure you have insurance company watching over your business. Logistics could be risky business, but business is all about risks. Ask questions, research and learn all you can before going into this business. If your service is remarkable, growth in this business would surprise even you. Don't be afraid to take risks, be afraid to remain the same. I wish you success.

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THE PROFESSIONAL CONDUCTOR

Not taking risk is a risk itself

I remember a while back, I boarded a public vehicle. Even though it wasn't so comfortable, it was memorable. I remember the vehicle parked at a bus-stop, there was a man having a chat with someone just outside the bus speaking very good English, then the conductor got down to call for passengers and just as the vehicle was about moving, the man speaking good English jumped and hung on the vehicle, but this time, he spoke Yoruba in a very deep voice telling the conductor he wanted to follow them. At a point while the vehicle was still in motion, this same man jumped down. Apparently, he was the conductor of another public transport vehicle and he jumped down soon as he saw his vehicle. The driver of the bus I was then made a comment, he applauded him for jumping down while the vehicle was still in such motion and said to his own conductor, "That guy na professional conductor".
Then I thought to myself, could there be anything like a professional conductor?

I remembered when I heard the quality of English he was speaking. A series of questions began crossing my mind, "Could this young man be a BSC Holder? Could he be a professional in a different academic career path? Where did he get it wrong?

He was probably excellent at something order than being the 'professional conductor', my guess is, when life got tough, he wasn't able to get tougher which led him to his current job, maybe he couldn't get a job, probably he didn't like his previous job etc. Whatever the case may be, you must be better than that. Tough times don't last, its only tough people that last.

Many of us end up in Jobs we don't like and remain at it, not because we don't have other ideas, not because we don't know how to go about them, but because of fear. Fear is the number one killer of dreams in the world. Many of us fear to take risks, because we are scared of the outcomes, we are scared of failing.
We should learn to think like children. Children don't fear failure, for instance, a child learns to walk by trying and falling (failing), but the child keeps trying till he can finally walk. It seems the older we grow, the more fearful we become. We should embrace failure and learn from it. Don't be scared to take risks.
Not taking risk is a risk itself, for instance, if you fall under the category of people who hate their jobs and you have a great business idea or a very good cv which you know many other companies wouldn't resist. In such a situation, not risking to resign your job and probably starting your own business or looking for another job is a risk itself. By not taking the risk, you risk not getting a better job, you risk not starting your own business and being your own boss, you risk not knowing what it feels like to live a better life, you risk always being bitter going to work which could cause depression, you risk not discovering your true self.
Don't end up like the professional conductor, take that risk that promises you a better tomorrow, if you fail, you learn your mistake, pick yourself up and try again.

In today's business world, I doubt if there is any business where the entrepreneur had to try 1000 times to achieve business success like it took to invent the light bulb. The light bulb story is enough proof that failure is a learning process. If you don't learn from your mistakes after failing, then you are failing while failing, but learning from your failures makes you better while failing. Take the risk because really, you have nothing to loose, Vanity upon vanity; all is vanity. Won't you rather make your mark on this world rather than returning to your maker with nothing to be remembered for or no record of achievement? Naked you came, naked you shall return. May you not end up like the professional conductor.

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TRUE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Take a leap and the net will appear

The most important and possibly the biggest question to begin an idea/startup/business or anything great in life would probably be..'How do I start?'
Whenever anyone asks me this question, my answer is always the same..'Just start'.
I always say, 'take a leap and the net will appear', because I believe strongly in, 'where there's a will, there will always be a way'. There has always been a way for strong minded entrepreneurs who are ready to give it all for a vision they believe in and there would also be a way for you if you are ready to follow through.
I would conclude that being an entrepreneur is the most difficult job on earth. Its the most risky, most stressful and also has the highest returns. An employee only worries about his responsibility in that specific department of the organisation, whereas, the entrepreneur who is the CEO/MD has to worry about every department in the organisation, including partners, clients, staffs and the business itself.
You have to be willing to take risks in life to be successful. The safest way to take risks is to take calculated risks with a plan A, B, C and possibly D.
Don't ever get carried away by discouragements and set backs, have in mind, no one else can see your vision clearer than you. When Bill gates was about starting Microsoft, even the name was funny to some potential investors who were some of his father's closest friends, Steve Jobs was turned down too many times not to give up etc etc.

Relentless hustle in the midst of disappointment is the spice of a success story.

Regardless of what your idea is, if you cannot give up your job, playtime, energy and money, to be fully devoted to it, its not meant for you, its probably a borrowed vision.
Some people might say just starting with nothing is too risky, yeah! its risky. The secret ingredient to taking a leap and hoping the net will appear is Passion.

Your passion will always take you where money can't.

You have an idea that requires a million dollar to execute, start with the 5 naira in your pocket, if you think its impossible, just start, don't think. The more you work towards the success of your idea, the closer you are to achieving your vision. Water drops can form an ocean. Where there's passion, discipline, commitment and hard work, opportunity will meet preparation. The more you do, the more you learn, the more prepared are for your opportunity. Come to think of it, except if you already have something on ground, you might not even know an opportunity when it appears.
Personally, I started my business with 2000 Naira which was borrowed, and now its more than 100 times of that. One of my mentors, Dr. Samson Makinwa started his business with 600 Naira and its now a big business with branches and partners nationwide. The key to success isn't just hard work, its being relentless and consistent.
Just start and it will work out. The more you work towards your goal, the more your vision gets clearer. As time goes on, you forge your own part to success. There is no secret formula for success, you invent your own formula. The best time to start your idea is now. There will never be a better tomorrow for a fearful entrepreneur to start, you will only discover you had better yesterdays you could have started. Start small, start anyhow, start like that, start with the vision all scattered, but start with passion and a goal. Just take the leap and the net will appear. Don't be afraid of failing, its better you fail early and fail fast, so you can pick yourself up and start again. Learn from your failures and be great.

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HARD WORK OR SMART WORK?

Hard work is great for stress, Smart work is great for success

You must have heard the saying,'You break your health to get wealth and then, spend your wealth to get health'

This is so for most people. The more painful thing is that in the end, many people don't even have enough of the wealth to revive their health. Sadly, most people die of Money sickness. Money sickness could be in form of cancer, arthritis, hypertension, stroke, HBP etc. I call it money sickness because most people acquire this sicknesses in their pursuit for money.

Money is not the most important thing in life, but money does affect everything that is important :richdad

Many people, when asked the last time they went for a check up, comfortably ate 3 square meals in a day, rested for a whole day or even took a vacation; you hear the most silly excuse, 'I don't have the time'. But the time is created when the body breaks down.
Let's compare our body to a generator set. The generator worsks itself to power other electrical alliances, just as we work ourselves to meet all our needs. If the fuel or engine oil isn't enough in the gen, it goes off or doesn't work properly. Likewise, If the gen is left working for too long without servicing, it develops fault. Many of us don't service our bodies by going to the doctor, many of us don't refill our bodies by eating the right things at the right time and by resting.

We all want wealth, but we dont want to get the wealth and be given a time frame to spend it. God forbid after the wealth comes, the doctor also comes up with a terminal sickness or a food menu of what we can eat and cannot eat. If you ask me that's the worst, because I like food.

If your current job isn't allowing you take care of yourself, my dear, find an alternative for your own good. God forbid anything happens to you, in less than a month, your boss will find someone else. If you're an entrepreneur, God forbid anything happens to you, your next of kin takes over all the dividends of your years of destroying your body,. It gets worse if your next of kin can't handle the business and ruins it. For some of us who are probably thinking of quitting our job, I recommend the book,'Before you quit your job' by Robert Kiyosaki & Sharon L.Letcher.

For those of us who are entrepreneurs, I recommend you go back to your drawing board and work out a plan to bring experts on board who can lessen the burden on you. When you work smart, you achieve more. Warren Buffet, Bill gates, Mike Adenuga all have employees who work hard to increase the value of their businesses. Stop decieving youself with the notion that no one else can handle your business better than you. You will definitely find better professionals who will lessen the burden on you, provided your business has the right framework, both legal and financial.
Think ahead of your now, what's the value of money if you loose the freedom to spend it as you please.

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SECRET TO STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS

Self development is key to business success.

Only read this if you are serious about becoming your own boss.
With the present economic condition of the country, coupled with high rate of unemployment, we all aspire to be entrepreneurs. Truth is, not all of us are built to be entrepreneurs and not all of us will be entrepreneurs. Starting your own business entails so much, but I will be giving you some tips to make your long entrepreneurial journey somewhat shorter, more productive and easier.

We all ask ourselves this million dollar question, how do I start?
How about things to do before you start? Here is what you should know before you start...

Information is key!!! The easiest way to be successful is to first learn all the rudiments of building, maintaining and sustaining a successful business. Congratulations, you have already started learning by reading this post. If you rush into business inexperienced, you will definitely rush out, which is the major reason banks and other money lenders prefer to give expansion and not start-up loans.

There are so many ways to learn, you can learn by reading Books, articles, blogs etc., they are fast and easy ways to gather information about all aspects of business in any niche. The internet has made it easier to access reading materials as you can download books relating to any niche of your choice in PDF formats sometimes even for free on the internet. You can try sites such as booksboon.com, or select from a list of websites in this link  http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/.

You can also learn by attending business seminars. Every now and then, we hear of various seminars being organised by churches, organisations, companies, schools, etc. Seminars help to grant us access to professionals at various levels in different fields of business, from the expert, to the experienced or to even a starter like yourself. Seminars are also a good way to get yourself a mentor, which is also a good way to learn about developing your start-up. Get yourself an experienced mentor who you can always look up to whenever you need advice and assistance. A mentors' advice would always come in handy.

Research on people who have excelled in your field to understand what steps they took, also make sure you research on people who have failed in your niche to beware of what steps they took or did not take, so you can avoid failure also.

Join communities and interact with people in your desired field. Physical and Virtual communities such as forums and groups of professionals is a great way to get up-to-date information of what's happening in the business world. Nairaland.com is a good place for such forums.

When you are sure you have acquired enough information, it gets easier for you to prepare a comprehensive business plan for yourself, your vision for your business becomes clearer and in the process, you would have definitely discovered ways of acquiring funds for your start-up. Don't overlook writing down a business plan, even if you don't want to process a loan, a comprehensive business plan will expose you to some aspects of the business you probably didn't give any thought to.

Start by choosing the right acquaintances. On your journey to success, your personal relationships can be a major setback. If you are surrounded with people who are negative minded and you let that negativity get to you, trust me, you're heading back to your starting point of doubt, laziness and idleness. Change your group, if those closest to you are not positive minded, its better you change them and get a different set of positive minded people. If you're also optimistic and positive minded, it won't be difficult for you to find others such as yourself. Unlike magnets, humans with similar values, opinions and beliefs attract.

When times are hard, Passion is what will keep you going. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going and the passionate would eventually overcome the tough times.

Most importantly, be prayerful if you want to succeed. Most entrepreneurs neglect the God factor when searching for wealth, forgetting that before anything manifests in the physical, it would have manifested in the spiritual. The God factor is what makes you transparent, fair, honest, respectful and work with optimum integrity in business and it would eventually make you successful.
Commit your business to God and don't forget to pay your tithe.

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5 AWESOME BUSINESS NICHES YOU SHOULD CONSIDER

Niches you should consider to start a business - food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, job creation

Have you ever thought of starting your own business or being your own boss? If so, then these questions must have crossed your mind...
• What business do I go into?
• How am I sure I will sell?
• How will I do it?
• Who do I sell to?
• How much am I going to be making?

Today, I will help you answer some of these questions and guide you through deciding which niche fits you the most
Before I proceed, it is important to note that you must have a passion for what you are doing to succeed, because in tough times when there's no income or encouragement, it’s only the passion that would keep you going.
I have also come to discover that in life, no matter what niche you're into, whether it’s legal or not, if you're consistent with it, you will succeed, which is evident in the story of the tower of babel. You probably just thought of some illegal ways of making money and a couple of people you know that are making money through it right?, Please I strongly advice against illegal means of making money. What does it profit a man to gain the world and to lose his soul?

You can find a future in any of these 5 niches:

1- Job creation
   Unemployment is probably the major reason why blogs like mine will captivate the interest of today's youths. The job market is a huge one, the gurus at jobberman and the likes can testify to that. If you're passionate about helping people succeed like myself, you can consider building yourself a niche in the job market. Probably as a consultant that helps people construct cvs and teach presentation skills for interviews, probably being an intermediary between companies and people who offer freelance services such as website development, content providing, custom clothings etc. Just think around this niche, and if you have the technical know-how, starting your own job website isn't a bad idea either

2- Entertainment
   The world has moved from the industrial revolution age and we are now in the information age. The hardship in recent times has called for an increase in entertainment to suppress the negative effects the hardship has on people. Never in the history of the world have entertainers earned as much as they do now.
If you like to be noticed and you like the idea of being famous, then entertainment is a niche you can build around. To be successful in the entertainment industry, get yourself a trustworthy mentor to put you through. You could develop yourself in various entertainment niches such as social media entertainment, which is relatively cheap, or church comedy. You can also consider song writing or owning a blog where you post jokes. Most importantly, make sure you always write down your ideas, because it’s very easy to forget them in the next second.

3- Food
   We all must eat. Food is number 1 in the hierarchy of human needs. Whether you are a farmer, a marketer, a nutritionist, anything food related would definitely sell if you have the right structures. Nigerians are becoming more food conscious as a result of the numerous diseases springing out frequently, most especially cancer, you can take advantage of this and provide advice on food consumption. You can also partner with fast foods, and you run a website to deliver food to customers who order on your site while you get your percentage from both the fastfood and the buyer. You can also offer specialised food services to patients of certain food related ailments such as diabetes, allergies etc. you can either give them recipes on new meals they can prepare or you offer to provide them with the dishes or the ingredients in preparing them. All over the world, the number of diabetes patients is on the increase. To practice this niche, you must be able to work under pressure.

4- Clothing
   Would you rather go hungry or naked?
   Clothing is number two in the hierarchy of human needs. No matter how hard the economy is, you will always need to add one or two items to your wardrobe every now and then. If you are a fashion conscious person, you can consider going into this niche. You can be an affiliate to a cloth producer or marketer and open a virtual shop on an online store such as konga, jumia etc, where you snap the clothes and upload the pictures for sale on your store. You get your discount from your marketer and also could also charge the buyer extra. This way, you don't need a shop, you just link seller with buyer, and the delivery agency ships the clothes while you earn your commission. With nice cloths and good pictures, you can be sure to make sales because of the large audience that visit these online stores daily. All you need is internet access and a camera. You can also get creative and think of other ways of generating income in the fashion market.

5- Shelter
   Everybody looks forward to a place where they can rest their head after a long day.
   Shelter is number 3 in the hierarchy of needs of humans. You can partner with local agents and help university students get apartments off campus, this is a very lucrative niche as such accommodations are always in high demand. Subsequently, you can be an affiliate marketer with a real estate company and source for clients who want to rent or buy lands, apartments or houses. You could easily do this by posting online ads on Facebook and LinkedIn. You could consult a real estate agent to give you some hints and tips about the real estate market, and who knows, you might get inspired and build a niche from some ideas you might get.


These 5 niches are top priority needs that cut across all ages and gender, with the right strategies and passion, you're bound to succeed in either of them. Alternatively, there are several other niches that can generate huge revenue for you out there, BE CREATIVE and STAY POSITIVE.

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