Launching a startup company in Nigeria is not for the faint-hearted.
The process can be very complex, expensive and overwhelming.
Maybe you have a great startup idea and you’re thinking in your head about how your idea could have a big impact and make you a lot of money.
You might even be thinking of pitching your idea to an investor and raising some seed capital.
But the truth is that a great idea isn’t the only recipe to launch and build a profitable startup company in Nigeria.
There are so many nuances to consider if you want to build a successful startup company in Nigeria, and that is what I’ll be discussing in this article.
The Viability Test
The most important part of a startup business is it’s viability. How viable a business is would determine how successful its products and services would be in the market.
The Viability of a business is proportional to how much the business fulfills a market need or solves a problem for its customers.
The most successful startup businesses are those that solve a problem or fills a need. Usually the problem or need could be that of the founders themselves.
The Requirement Test
Once you have done the viability test and found that the business fills a need or solves a problem, it is now time to find out what it requires to build the business.
Is the business a tech product?
Do you need to acquire equipment or machinery?
Do you need a certification or license to be able to operate legally?
Do you need to hire expertise in any area?
You need to find the most important requirements for operating your startup Business optimally.
The business requirement would determine where you spend your capital and how you hire your team.
Create A Team
The proficiency of your startup team would determine how you execute your startup idea.
The more skilled and dedicated your team, the more your chance of launching and building a successful startup business.
Most startup businesses today would usually have a tech product or a tech aspect that enables the business.
This means that you might need to hire skilled programmers to help you build the tech aspect of your business.
For this, you will need to hire a UI designer, a front-end developer, and a back-end developer. This group would form your core tech team and would work together with the product lead or chief product officer.
You will also need to bring a business development guy on board. This is the guy that will take your startup to the market.
If you need to beta test your tech product, acquire first users, or get partners for your startup business, then you need to hire a business development personnel.
Build an MVP
After putting together a 5-star team for your startup business, the next step is to build an MVP (Most Valuable Product), which is the simplest version of your business.
An MVP could be a form on the web or a single page website with a call-to-action.
The goal of an MVP is to test the demand of your products or services. The more people that signup or call to request for your products or services, the more viable and ready-for-market your startup is.
Most startups would just build a single page website with a form and then send leads to that page through adverts on social media or Google ads.
The goal is to gauge the level of interest your startup idea or concept can capture.
A perfect way to know if people are really interested in your startup business is to ask for a favor. Ask them to either pre-order your product (a la Kickstarter), or subscribe to get notified when you launch fully.
An MVP is all about testing your startup idea in a real market situation. Test it as much as possible, make changes, iterate, and build your startup to satisfy your customers.
Raise Capital
Once you have certified that your startup business has a lot of interest and customers willing to pay for your products or services, you can then raise Capital towards launching fully.
I strongly believe that data from an MVP is enough traction to help you raise external capital, as long as your target market is large enough and your startup concept is an exciting one.
Most investors would be willing to fund a solid team with an exciting product in a large market.
If you can show sufficient proof that your product or services are in demand, then you’ll have no qualms raising the capital you need to take your startup to the next level.