Entrepreneurs in Nigeria have been advised by business and marketing experts to use contemporary, technological tools and tactics to create long-lasting structures around their businesses that would assure survival with or without them in charge.
They gave the advice at the SME Mall’s inaugural Advertisers Association of Nigeria Small and Medium Enterprise Business Summit, which was held in cooperation with it as part of the preparations for the ADVAN Africa Excellence Awards, which will take place in Lagos in November.
The President, Advertisers Association of Nigeria, Osamede Uwubanmwen, speaking on the theme, ‘Marketing as a tool for sustainable business development’, said most entrepreneurs built a business around their own skills, abilities, and vision, without considering their business to be a separate entity.
“As an entrepreneur, you have to pay yourself and make sure your business is separate and distinct, and it is dangerous to deep your hand into your business funds to run other things outside your business,” he said.
While speaking on business structuring, the president said it was crucial to take into consideration the different types of business structure which include capital structure, business structure, functional and organisational structures.
He said, “Every entrepreneur must inculcate the habit of record keeping, and also have functional organisational structure through which activities of the business will be monitored and evaluated for the sake of performance assessment.
“You need to find out what’s obtainable in your industry, determine where your strength is and where you need help, constantly review your structure, and always ensure you are ready to adapt to change.”
Marketing professional, Samuel Akinrimisi, who spoke on ‘Building sustainable SME brands’, noted that every entrepreneur whether big or small should consider his or her business as a brand and project.
Akinrisimi said, “What makes your brand different from another person’s brand is the name, logo, symbol, design among others, noting that, brand promise and the kind of message the brand owner sends out to the target audience are very important.”
