Thousands of undergraduates, graduates, school-leavers and former employees are now trooping to their own small and medium enterprises.
Most businesses are already flooded with people who want to carve their niche therein. There seems to be no new business idea that has not been flooded already.
True or false?
The answer is a resounding No! If you are thinking of going into business and you have everything but an idea of what exactly to do, then you should consider yourself in the right place and at the time!
Let me assure you that as long as man continues to live, man (and woman) will not run out of new business ideas.
All you need to do is to think outside the desk and aggressively so. At ideaslane, we take it upon ourselves to furnish young creative minds with the essential start-up know-how of lucrative and novel businesses.
By the time you are done reading this piece, your business horizon would have been broadened a little more.
What is the importance of fruit to healthy living?
That sounds more asking what follows the letter A in the alphabets.
However, for some time now, I have been thinking of how to turn the need for fruits by more people into a lucrative business.
How does that sound? Well, wait a minute.
If my memory serves me right, one lesson I remember learning in my entrepreneurship class is to always endeavour to fill a crucial unmet or under-served need in my environment.
So isn’t there a pressing need for every individual to have an adequate daily supply of fruits at a price that is affordable?
Let me share with you what I have lately been thinking could be done to make cool money out of people’s need and love for fruits.
Most of the time, we buy fruits from street hawkers, roadside sellers, or from open markets when we do our monthly or biannual food-stuff shopping.
We also buy fruits from big shopping malls in the metropolis when we go shopping bimonthly or even monthly.
For me, I eat fruits a lot but I am still not satisfied with either buying my fruits from the malls or purchasing them from those who hawk.
Most times, fruits come cheaper from hawkers but I don’t get to have a variety from which to choose at a time from an hawker.
For the malls, I don’t usually have the luxury of time to go shopping for fruits at malls considering the distance from my house; the long queue of luxury shoppers and the pressure of resisting unplanned buying.
So, I still see a space that is yet to be filled here.
Imagine a place where you can shop for all kinds of fruits all the time at a reasonable price.
What if there are neat fruit shops where fruit lovers can easily stop, buy, sit, eat-in and leave. wow!
What if there are online fruit shops where fruit lovers can make orders and get deliveries within the snap of a finger? This can meet the needs of hundreds of thousands yearning for fresh fruits on the go.
I am really fascinated by the idea of an online fruit shop.
This will help online fruit sellers to connect directly with farmers or retailers who can supply various fruits on demand.
This will also reduce wastage as sellers will only buy fruits from retailers or farmers that are demanded.
Good packaging will always boost any brand image. Remember, branding starts from the brand name – in this case, shop name – to the quality fruits being sold.
Make your fruits shops very attractive to buyers, just like cakes and Ice cream shops.
After all, fruit does more good to the body than those fatty snacks. Make sure you store only fruit only in the quantity that can be bought within a day or two!
This will minimize wastage and loss.
As good as a fruit business already sounds, to be successful at it, one will have to be hard working, determined and have good market knowledge.
As a ‘fruit dealer‘ you’ll need to know the benefits or function of each fruit item, just like a pharmacist knows his drugs’ uses.
Know what fruit is particularly good for different health challenges; for women, elderly, kids, sportsmen and all other categories of consumers.
Have a thorough understanding of farmers’ seasonal changes and how to adapt to such changes.
Create awareness! You need to make people aware of what you are doing and make love fruits just the same way some people don’t joke with their daily fried rice and chicken.
Once you have a need to fill and a market for your business, you are right on the path to building a successful fruit business.
What do you think follows thereafter? and what are some of the challenges you can already envisage? Please join the conversation.
Now, you just motivated me! Keep it up guys.