Dry Cleaning and laundry Business

Dry Cleaning and laundry Business

One of the rules to starting a successful business is identifying challenges and everyday problems encountered by the people, or communities around you.

To start a business that you can grow to become successful and profitable, the Laundry and Dry Cleaning business can be a good option. But before you consider starting a dry cleaning business you have to put into some factors into considerations

1) Location: Area of coverage matters a lot. Starting a dry cleaning business in a poor neighbourhood where 90% of the population prefer to do their laundry themselves due to lack of funds may be climbing a steep hill and success will be far tougher to achieve. There is a better chance at success if you identify an area, neighbourhood or even a residential estate where the standard of living is average and above average. You can then be sure that if you do the right things you will achieve relative success.

2) Competition: Dry cleaning and Laundry services may be lucrative but not when you are entering into a ground already occupied by several laundry services. You will have to do extra creative and ingenious work to turn your business into a success. So before you launch into any town or area do your business diligence and find out the level of competition if any.

3) Finance: The amount of capital at your disposal will determine things like if you start with two staff or only yourself, if you introduce mechanised laundry or make do with the manual process of laundry. Depending on the area you are and the level of competition available these things may matter.

4) Power: If you have a stable power supply, this will reduce the amount of money to be spent running generators and this will also improve efficiency in terms of time and energy used.

5) Clients/Customers: Getting customers and then satisfying and surpassing their expectations is key to succeeding in this business. There is one sure way to get a handful of first time customers if you are starting out new. Get as many people as possible to send in a specific number of laundry each (maybe maximum of five per person) FREE. Work as hard as you can and deliver to them. You will have automatically made them customers.

Grasscutter Farm Business

Grasscutter Farm Business

The rate at which people consume bush meat these days has given rise to the increasing demand for grasscutter variously known as the marsh cane-rat, ground hog and in francophone West Africa the aulacode. Grasscutter meat is a delicacy that is served in big hotels and restaurants as well as some joints patronized by middle to high level people.

Depending on your experience, grasscutter can be packaged to outfits as pepper soup meat, suya, frozen or dried meat. Most Chinese are looking for the meat as regular meal and also to entertain most of their guests from abroad.

If you rear grasscutter in commercial quantity under good hygienic condition, fast food restaurants will be your regular customers. They will only need your assurance of regular supply per week. There is also good market for grasscutter meat in the international market if only you can do a good packaging. You can make millions of naira from this vast and inexhaustible market breeding this animal either on a part-time or full time basis.

Many who are into the business of grasscutter farming are unwilling to let others know about the farming methodology. The techniques are often shrouded in secrecy.

Importance Of Grasscutter Farming

· The demand for grasscutter meat is so large that it is not being met.
· They are easy and very cheap to raise.
·  Gestation period of the grasscutter is about 154 days or five month
· Each female gives birth to an average of 5 to 12 offspring every 5 months.  A serious and dedicated farmer can have close to 200 families at a time
· They command a very good selling price
· They are herbivorous animals, so they feed mostly on grass.
· It is a multimillionaire business, if one can take the courage of breeding them on commercial scale.
·  It is a business venture that can be started on small scale with a space of less than one room.
· Source of income and employment: one can depend on grasscutter for his livelihood. In fact, grasscutter farming should create a job opportunities for urban and rural dwellers. The business of producing, processing, transporting, storing, financing and servicing grasscutter products should give employment to many people.
· You can conveniently earn income a thousand fold higher than your present earning. You can keep your present job and do this on part time.
· The meat has high carcass quality and protein is comparable to that of poultry.
· Grasscutters do not compete with man for food it feeds on some types of grass

Starting a frozen food business

 Starting a frozen food business

Starting a frozen food business is fairly simple and can be done with very little overhead. However, it will take some planning, as several different kinds of frozen food business models are in the marketplace. This article will help you choose one that suits you and develop a delivery method and a marketing plan so you earn a solid reputation that, in turn, will result in residual income for you in the future.

Things You'll Need

    Business plan
    Capital
    Proper equipment

Instructions

1. Choose your products. Virtually thousands of foods are sold frozen. From pizzas to pickles, the gambit is being covered by many. This means you will likely never be all things to all people. However, it also means opportunities to specialize are ample. Choose products that are simple to obtain and market at first. Look for wholesalers that sell unique products that are not currently available in your area.

2. Write a business plan. Your business plan should be written around your product or products and how you plan to market them. It should include studies of the frozen food business in your area, your intended marketing plan, a budget, a list of equipment you will need to operate your business and your niche.
      
3. Choose a delivery method. Selling frozen foods often involves several delivery systems. You may decide to market your products online and deliver them, pedal your foods to businesses and homes face to face or open a store. You may also have an idea that's completely unique. It's up to you.
     
4.Raise capital. You will need some cash to start, especially if you plan to buy a delivery truck and kitchen equipment or lease a storefront.

5. Find storage space. It is important to keep an ample inventory on hand at all times. In the beginning, this may involve you buying a deep freezer or two.       

6. Get a food license. To sell food in almost all areas of the country, you must have a food-distribution license and/or a license to prepare food for sale.
       
7. Consider a franchise. Many companies with proven business models are looking for franchisees. Although this type of model will likely require a sizable capital investment, it's a good option if you wish to bypass the process of building a business from the ground up.

Some frozen food wholesalers are always looking for independent contractors to market their products. This type of arrangement may work well for you, in that you won't be required to get a license, find a kitchen or storage space, or cross market with other businesses.

Car Washing Business

Car Washing Business

Car washing business is a very profitable business in Nigeria, considering the dusty and muddy nature of our environment. Cars get dirty even if they are just parked. Since people need to clean their cars regularly you are always sure of a steady market.

With a good location and excellent marketing concept, I assure you that you can make over N25,000 daily from this business. I may not be willing to state names for anonymity reasons but just take a stroll to some good car washing business centers in your city and calculate the inflow of vehicles daily and what the car washers stand to make at an average bill of N1000 per vehicle, you will be amazed that most of them earns much more than N25,000 daily.

You can follow this simple steps to start a profitable car washing business:

1. Make a business plan as this will be essential to plan out all the short and long term needs of the business and will help in smooth operations.

2. Find a location. Look for a location where car washing service is needed. Choose a busy intersection such as a main street which is visible to more people. More automobile visibility will increase business.

3. Register your business with the corporate affairs commission

4. Learn the requirements.

5. Buy the needed equipment such as water pumping machine and host, PVC tank, brushes, and buckets etc.  You can use local water supply if you don't have the needed funds to sink a borehole yet.

6. Concretize the floor, and create arena for customer relaxation while waiting for the services.

7. Research profitable extra services. There are different kinds of services such as additional waxing or self vacuuming you can offer.

8. Get adequate finances for the business and advertise the business by using creative and tested promotional methods such as fliers and referral coupons. Start-up costs for a car washing business is about N150,000

10 Best Ways to Get Traffic for Free

 10 Best Ways to Get Traffic for Free

Getting traffic is one of the most important tasks for any web master. What is more, you can't get traffic once and then just reap the benefits. Getting traffic is an ongoing task and you must be constantly doing it, if you want to get traffic and keep it. Here are some of the ways to get traffic for free:

1. Optimize your site for search engines.
Search engines have always been a major way to get traffic for free. That is why you need to do your homework and optimize your site so that it ranks well for the keywords you target. SEO is still the most powerful way to get traffic for free and you really need to invest some time and efforts in the optimization of your site. SEO is not that difficult and if you want to get familiar with it in a nutshell, check our SEO Tutorial. If you are too busy for that, you can start with the 15 Minute SEO article.

2. Frequently update the contents of your site.
If you expected some shocking secrets revealed, you might be a bit disappointed. One of the first steps in getting traffic for free is trivial but vital – get great content and frequently update it. In terms of SEO, content is king. If your content is good and frequently updated you will not only build a loyal audience of recurring visitors, who will often come to see what is new, but search engines will also love your site.

3. Take advantage of social bookmarking sites.
Social bookmarking sites (especially the most popular among them) are another powerful way to get traffic for free. If you want to learn how to do it, check the How to get Traffic from Social Bookmarking sites article, where we have explained what to do if you want to get free traffic from sites such as Digg, Delicious, etc.

4. Use your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Social networks are also a way to get traffic for free. If you are popular on networks, such as Twitter or Facebook, the traffic you get from there can easily surpass the traffic from Google and the other search engines. It is true that building a large network of targeted followers on Twitter and supporters on Facebook takes a lot of time and effort but generally the result is worth.


5. Get links with other sites in your niche.
Another way to get traffic for free is from other sites in your niche. Getting links with other sites in your niche is also good for SEO, especially if you manage to get links without the famous nofollow attribute. But even if the links are nofollow (i.e. they are useless for SEO), they still help to get traffic to your site. If you manage to put your link in a visible place on a site with high volumes of traffic, you can get thousands of hits from this link alone. If you need list of sites within your niche where you could get backlinks from, check the Backlink Builder tool. However, be careful if you exchange links because linking to bad neighbors can do you a lot of harm.

6. Use any chance to promote your site for free.
Free promotion is always welcome, so don't neglect it. There are many ways to promote your site for free and some of the most popular ones include free classified ads, submissions to directories, inclusion in various listings, etc. It is true that not all free ways to promote your site work well but if you select the right places to promote your site for free, this can also result in tons of traffic.

7. Create a free product or service.
Content drives most traffic when you offer something useful. There are many types of useful content you can create and they largely depend on the niche of your site. You can have articles with tons of advice, or short tips but one of the most powerful ways to get traffic is to create a free product or service. When this product or service gets popular and people start visiting your site, chances are that they will visit the other sections of the site as well.

8. Use viral content.
Free products and services are great for getting free traffic to your site and one of the best varieties in this aspect is viral content. Viral content is called so because it distributes like a virus – i.e. when users like your content, they send it to their friends, post it on various sites, and promote it for free in many different ways. Viral content distributes on its own and your only task is to create it and submit it to a couple of popular sites. After that users pick it and distribute it for you. Viral content can be a hot video or a presentation but it can also be a good old article or an image.

9. Use offline promotion.
Offline promotion is frequently forgotten but it is also a way to get traffic for free. Yes, computers are everywhere and many people spend more time online than offline but still life hasn't moved completely on the Web. Offline promotion is also very powerful and if you know how to use it, this can also bring you many visitors. Some of the traditional offline ways to promote your site include printing its URL on your company's business cards and souvenirs or sticking it on your company vehicles. You can also start selling T-shirts and other merchandise with your logo and this way make your brand more popular.

10. Include your URL in your signature.
URLs in forum signatures are also a way to get traffic for free. There are forums, which get millions of visitors a day and if you are a popular user on such a forum, you can use this to get traffic to your site. When you post on forums and people like your posts, they tend to click the link to your site on your signature to learn more about you. In rare cases you might be able to post a deep link (i.e. a link to an internal page of the site) rather than a link to your homepage and this is also a way to focus attention to a particular page. Unfortunately, deep links are rarely allowed.

Getting traffic for free is a vast topic and it is not possible to list all the ways to do it. However, if you know the most important ways – i.e. the ways we discussed in this article and you apply them properly, it is guaranteed that you will be able to get lots of traffic for free.

Cassava Starch Production

Cassava Starch Production

Starch is one of the most abundant substances in nature, a renewable and almost unlimited resource. Starch is produced from grain or root crops. It is mainly used as food, but is also readily converted chemically, physically, and biologically into many useful products to date, starch is used to produce such diverse products as food, paper, textiles, adhesives, beverages, confectionery, pharmaceuticals, and building materials. Cassava starch has many remarkable characteristics, including high paste viscosity, high paste clarity, and high freeze-thaw stability, which are advantageous to many industries

Simple process for cassava starch production.   

Cassava starch is produced primarily by the wet milling of fresh cassava roots but in some countries such as Thailand it is produced from dry cassava chips. Starch is the main constituent of cassava. About 25% starch may be obtained from mature, good quality tubers. About 60 % starch may be obtained from dry cassava chips and about 10 % dry pulp may be obtained per 100 kg of cassava roots.

Fresh tubers are processed during season and dry chips during the off-season in some countries. Extraction of starch from fresh cassava roots (Fig. 1) can be divided into five main stages: preparation (peeling and washing), rasping/pulping/grating, purification (starch washing), dewatering and drying, and finishing (milling and packaging).

For cassava, the process of starch extraction is relatively simple as there are only small amounts of secondary substances, such as protein, in the roots. When cassava roots are harvested or selected for starch extraction, age and root quality are critical factors. Cassava roots need to be processed almost immediately after harvest, as the roots are highly perishable and enzymatic processes accelerate deterioration within 1-2 days. A first-rate quality starch can be obtained from cassava using only water, and this makes the processing of cassava starch and flour particularly suitable for developing countries and rural industries.
Advantages of cassava starch

Cassava has many advantages for starch production.

•    High level of purity.
•    Excellent thickening characteristics.
•    A neutral (bland) taste.
•    Desirable textural characteristics.
•    A relatively cheap source of raw material containing a high concentration of starch (dry-matter basis) that can equal or surpass the properties offered by other starches (maize, wheat, sweetpotato, and rice).

Cassava starch:

•    It's easy to extract using a simple process (when compared to other starches) that can be carried out on a small-scale with limited capital.
•    is often preferred in adhesive production as the adhesives are more viscous, work more smoothly, and provide stable glues of neutral pH
•    Has clear paste.

SAWDUST BRIQUETTE EXPORT BUSINESS

One major achievement of the present civilian administration in the past twelve (12) years has been the revival and growth of the non-oil export market in Nigeria. Non-oil export has recorded a tremendous increase of 112.4 % in nine years spanning 2001 to 2010 with annual average growth figure of 10.34 %.

Hardwood charcoal is one of the key export commodities in Nigeria. Though a viable export commodity but the rate at which new entrant are coming into the business is increasing depleting the rate of return on investment of the business hence the need to diversify to a product with less competition and good rate of return on investment.

Sawdust briquette is compressed sawdust and just like hardwood charcoal is used as fuel. It has a greater advantage over charcoal and firewood because it is smokeless and combusts for longer hours. The export market for sawdust is also large, sustainable and expanding.

A briquette (or briquette) is a block of flammable matter used as fuel to start and maintain a fire.  They are produced from dry sawdust and the resulting compressed dust comes out in a solid and cylindrical shape. It can also be in different shapes. The conversation is done through the briquetting machine and the briquette does not require any binding agent or chemical adhesive.

They are used as cooking fuel in hotels, boarding school/hostels, eateries and factories where boilers are been used.

The product is marketed according to the grading briefly as follows:-

Grade "A"- void of cracks, hard with metallic sound when rolled and lengthy (not more than 4 pcs in a length of 390mm).

Grade "B"- with minimum cracks, hard and not less than 75mm in length.

Grade "C"- as "B" except the length is not less than 50mm in length.

During the era of late Gen. Sanni Abacha, sawdust ranked amongst the leading cooking fuel in Nigeria, due to the scarcity of kerosene. Sawdust, the chief raw material in the production of sawdust briquette, is produced as waste product in the processing and production of woods.

The market for sawdust briquette is both local and international though the international market is more developed than the local market.

The growing world population continues to fuel the demand for cooking fuel around the world and due to increasing awareness on global warming and its effects on the ecosystem, sawdust briquette is cheaper, faster and better than the regular firewood, natural gas, charcoal and kerosene. Opportunities exist in the production, sales and export of the product.

The exportable nature of this product makes it a goldmine for investors who wish to go into the export of the product or for existing exporters of charcoal to make greater profit as the demand is hot abroad.

The return on investment in the export of sawdust briquette is between 25% - 35%.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN TRADING AND BROKERAGE OF NIGERIAN CRUDE OIL.

Nigeria has for long been a major producer of crude oil ever since the first commercial well was drilled in Oloibiri in present day Bayelsa state. The country presently has an estimated 35.3 billion barrels both onshore and offshore assets mostly domiciled in the Niger Delta basin. Nigeria presently ranks tenth in the most petroleum-rich nation, and by the far the most affluent in Africa producing about two million {2,000,000} barrels per day.

Nigeria's petroleum is classified mostly as "light" and "sweet", as the oil is largely free of sulphur. Nigeria is the largest producer of sweet oil in OPEC. This sweet oil is similar in composition to petroleum extracted from the North Sea. This crude oil is known as "Bonny light". Names of other Nigerian crudes, all of which are named according to export terminal, are Qua Ibo, Escravos blend, Brass River, Forcados, and Pennington Anfan.

Sales of crude oil in Nigeria are usually done through the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation {NNPC} on FOB basis. Prospective buyers can also source the product on the following delivery terms from other source CIF, TTT or TTO. 

FOB – Free On Board (named loading port): The classic maritime trade term, seller must load the goods on board the ship nominated by the buyer, cost and risk being divided at ship's rail. The seller must clear the goods for export.

TTO- Tanker-Taker-Over: As the name suggests refers to a situation where the buyer takes over the hiring of the pregnant vessel along with the product it contains.

TTT- Tanker to Tanker Transfer: This refers to a situation where the buyer hires his own vessel and uses same to purchase products from the seller.

Petroleum products are among the most valuable natural resources abundantly available in our country. Nigerians and people everywhere use petroleum products as a fuel in their automobiles, generating sets, industrial plants and for cooking purposes, thus making petroleum products an essential commodity that is needed for the daily operations of individual, industrial and national activities.

Nigeria being an oil producing nation however still relies on imported petroleum products for the servicing of the economy. Such petroleum products as Petrol (PMS), Diesel (AGO) and kerosene (DPK) are products utilized by almost everybody on daily basis at an average of 60 million litres daily usage.

Due to increasing level of standard of living, more Nigerians are increasing the number of cars on the road, the need for constant power supply to aid uninterrupted production of goods and services and also for domestic use more Nigerians are increasing the demand for fuel in order to enjoy the usage of their generating sets and industrial plants.

OPPORTUNITY IN MARINE SUPPORT SERVICES IN THE PETROLEUM SECTOR.

An estimated $8 billion is spent annually on outsourcing of services in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria in operations such as fabrication, engineering procurement, construction (EPC), Front End Engineering Design (FEED), conceptual designs and seismic studies. This figure is projected to hit $15 billion within the next few years (Business Day, 2008).

Regrettably, despite these huge sums of money spent in servicing the industry, only a very little proportion of the accrue-able profit is spent in Nigeria. Majority of the amounts are repatriated abroad, where most of the equipment is manufactured; and providing employment opportunities for citizens of other countries.

The major reason for this situation has been attributed to low local content (LC), which is a situation where most of the service contracts are awarded to foreign firms because local indigenous firms lack the requisite skills, technical expertise, manpower and production capacity and capability to compete favorably.

The passage and assent of the Nigerian Local Content Policy is an expression of the desire of the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure that companies owned by Nigerians actively participate not only in the oil and gas trade of Nigeria but in all technical aspects of the Nigerian economy.

The entire essence of the new law is to increase indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry by prescribing minimum thresholds for the use of local services and materials and to promote the employment of Nigerian staff in the Industry.

Along with the Cabotage law in the maritime industry, which seeks to restrict the use of Foreign Vessels in Domestic Coastal trade to promote the development of indigenous tonnage and to establish a Cabotage vessel financing fund and for Related Matters, Nigerian investors can better harness the opportunity available in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria by providing maritime support services through leasing and rental of vessel, barge and tugboat.

Haulage of crew and equipment is an essential part of an oil and gas operation which requires the use of barges, tugboats and vessels.

A Barge is a flat – bottomed boat built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy equipment’s. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed or pushed by towboats. In the oil and gas industry, they are mostly used in swampy operation for the haulage of crew and equipment.

A tug boat is a boat that maneuvers vessel by pushing and towing them. They are usually used to tow barges.

A vessel is a craft for traveling and transporting goods on water and is usually larger than boats and barges.

Providing marine support services in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria is surely a viable business but the investor needs to be armed with the right information to succeed in the business.

MAKE MONEY SUPPLYING SOYA BEANS TO LOCAL INDUSTRIES

Nigeria presently produces about 500,000 MT of Soybean annually making it the largest producer of the product on the African continent. Soybean is a legume which is produced in most the middle belt of the country with Benue state accounting for about 45% of the total production in country.

Soybeans are an important source of high quality and inexpensive protein and oil. With an average protein content of 40% and oil content of 20%, soybean has the highest protein content of all food crops and is second only to groundnut in terms of oil content amongst food legumes. Soybeans are used in the production of milk, edible oil and animal feed. It’s high protein content and price makes it the best option in terms of treating malnutrition and would continue to expand the international market for the product which currently is estimated at US$40 billion.

Nigeria currently produces soybean worth $85 million in the international market and though most of the nation’s soybean is consumed locally where they are used in the production of soya milk and specially formulated foods to help malnourished infants and children, the international market for the product is growing and sustainable.

Foraminifera Market Research seeks to highlight the investment opportunity in the supply of soya beans to local industries in Nigeria.

The market for palm and edible oil is national. With a population of over one hundred and fifty {150,000,000} million people and an estimated national population growth rate of 5.7% per annum ,an average economic growth rate of 3.5% per annum in the past five {5} years, Nigeria has a large market for edible oil.

In 2005, in order to stimulate local production and attain self sufficiency in edible oil production, the government introduced the presidential initiative on the development of edible oil over a period not exceeding three {3} years. Under this initiative, attention was focused on the promotion of eleven scheduled oil seed crops which are oil palm seed, groundnut seed, Soya beans seed, cotton seed etc and production target was set for each of the crops under the programme as follow

1. Oil Palm: 1 million hectares capacity of producing 15 million fresh fruit bunches
2. Groundnut: 15 million tones annually
3. Soya beans: 670,000 1 million tones per annum
4. Seed Cotton: 1 million tones over the plan period

After five {5} years of the initiative, the domestic edible oil demand far exceeds the national production. The short fall in supply being estimated at about 50,000 tones per year. From the above figures, it is clear that there is a large and sustainable market for edible oil in Nigeria.

Soybean is an important source of high quality and inexpensive protein and oil. With an average protein content of 40% and oil content of 20%, soybean has the highest protein content of all food crops and is second only to groundnuts in terms of oil content amongst food legumes.

Because of it numerous uses, soya beans are in great demand and this opens an opportunity for interested investors to export the product.

The return on investment on the export of raw cashew nuts is estimated between 10%- 15%.