The concept of self-employment in Nigeria had already been catching on quickly before this pandemic happened. Now though, if anything, it seems that self-employment has come to stay. Self-employment is a process within which a person works for him/herself and not necessarily under any employer. A self-employed person pursues his/her own interests in life and generates revenues based on the services or products that they offer.
Self-employment in Nigeria often takes the form of freelancing or starting up an SME and there are enormous benefits when you become your own boss. You can travel and work freely, also start off your business with little capital especially if interests are chiefly online. But there are also many challenges to self-employment in Nigeria.
There isn’t any one size fit all to tackle these challenges but there are ways you can reduce their impacts on your business. You don’t have to be a soothsayer to see that SMEs in Nigeria are often run by self-employed people and that they take on a lot more risks than the conventional Nigerian employees. Every setup has its own Pros and Cons and if you choose the path of self-employment in Nigeria, you need to be aware of the major challenges that line this path so you can navigate them better.
- Isolation From Friends and Loneliness
Dabbling into self-employment in Nigeria can come at the price of being lonely and socially isolated from your friends. This isn’t necessarily their fault because once you are self-employed, there would be less social gatherings or hangouts after work with your colleagues. It will also be difficult to amass new friends quickly because you are literally working alone. You are bound to feel lonely after a while but that’s only natural. Rather it should compel you to double down on your new venture because some day, you will look back and be proud that you didn’t throw in the towel here.
- Lack of Job Security
One of the biggest challenges of starting an SME in Nigeria is losing your monthly income. If you are a salary earner, figuring out how to get both work and money as a self-employed person is incredibly overwhelming.
To tackle this problem, ensure that you have enough savings before quitting your regular job or taking the leap. Another option might be starting a side hustle first, manage it alongside your day job for sometime before quitting the latter. That way, you will be automatically saving for those first months of being self-employed while acquiring the skills you need– and customers – before even starting.
- Poor Time Management.
Poor time management is an underestimated killer of self-employment in Nigeria. Time is money, and when you are self-employed, what you make out of your time is the difference between your success and failure. Not managing time wisely causes SMEs in Nigeria to become overwhelmed quickly, lose their customers and ultimately start losing money. Two simple hacks to help you manage your time are planning your day and setting yourself office hours. These will prevent you from overworking and keep you focused when you work. Let your loved ones know what your office hours are and ignore social calls when at work. Having a work plan won’t mean anything if you stop to chat every other minute!
- Selling Yourself And Ideas Short.
This is a major challenge to self-employment in Nigeria because starting off often means that you are so unsure of the worth of your abilities and ideas that you might set a precedent of selling yourself short in your niche. For many SMEs in Nigeria, there is a healthy tension between winning new clients and delivering excellent results for existing clients. And if you are self-employed, you really can’t afford to focus exclusively on one or the other without jeopardizing the future of your business. It is advised that you spend at least one day a week on business activities like soliciting referrals or attending industry events even if they are webinars. Have confidence in yourself and the value you provide. Don’t offer discounts that are not worthwhile. It’s a race to the bottom which you can’t win.
- Inefficient Multi-Tasking.
As a new business owner, you’ll definitely need to wear various hats from the start of your self-employed career. You would need to take care of all sorts of things and do it the right way. From managing your business records, to scheduling, and eventually hiring staff, there’s a lot to learn. Big businesses have a finance department, a sales team, administrators. When you work for yourself, you have to do all these things and more. Self-employed people in Nigeria often find it shocking that they have to develop new skills on the go so. If you haven’t already done so, you should definitely learn what you can on all these topics. They are crucial information you need to have because even if you hire, say an accountant in the future, your own understanding of your finances is vital to your success in your chosen venture.
- Giving Up Before You Land Enough Clients.
When starting out as an SME in Nigeria, the first months are usually some of the toughest you’ll face. It’s incredibly tough to craft out your own customers or your target market and if you can’t find enough clients, you won’t be in business for the long term. Still you need to understand the dynamics of the market and not give up too soon. Customers won’t come to you if they don’t know about you in the first place so marketing and sales need to be the cornerstone of your business. Whether it’s face-to-face networking, social media advertising or anything else, get your products and services out there and don’t give up till your customers take notice and begin to troop in.
- Not Knowing When and What To Change.
As a self-employed person in Nigeria, it’s important to know when to change or pivot. You need to be attentive enough to know what idea, product or service isn’t working and figure out how to adapt to what your customers love. Sometimes pivoting while running SMEs in Nigeria is tough, and it is made worse by the guilt the founder feels for having failed. If you ever get to this point in your business, I hope you remember that there is nothing to feel guilty about because, as long as you are still trying, failure will always be miles away from you.
Ultimately, self-employment in Nigeria comes with the prestige of you being your own boss but it has its own fair share of challenges. Being aware of them will make you mentally strong and will help you adapt to your business goals quickly. And the quicker you get tough and adapt, the greater your success from being your own boss.