What you are doing wrong as a Trader!

I spent the last hour browsing through all my social media accounts to respond to messages or just to be informed. I found something disturbing and hoping at least one person will get the nudge.

It’s great and amazing that young people are embracing “business” but there is a leak!

Majority of these young people are graduates who decided to start one “business” or the other after searching for unavailable jobs. I have seen qualified lawyers selling clothes and qualified Engineers selling recharge cards.

But are they really in business?

Below are their errors!

Top one - Before going in for a degree, you are aware there are no jobs. Acquiring a skill could have been ideal and it’s the 21st century! You can always get your degree in later years. Local factors ought to have been considered here.

Now back to these “businesses”! To start with, it’s not a business but trading. You are trading in finished products! No, you are not a CEO because you have one bag full of clothes to sell!

Majority are focusing on creating a brand but with limited products to sell and with equally limited clients - you should build the client base out of your relationship with existing customers and potential customers from your circle by using attractive price and quality products.

You don’t spend so much on advertisements, company registration and branding when you don’t even have the clients to sell to - people are making money on your gullibility. Are you aware that the moment your “company” is registered - you are meant to be paying taxes?

You are to legitimize an existing “business” or potential opportunity and not to register and wait for the customers!

Another error - You are all trading same or similar products and struggling for the same potential customers. Because Mr.A is successful in a particular trade doesn’t mean you have the capacity to be successful, you are attracted to the success but not the process which in most cases are secrets or never shared.

The market you are all aiming is over saturated, there are more sellers than the buyers and this is why you are not selling! This is why your customers are negotiating you out of profit! They have options. Now you are frustrated and wondering what you did wrong? Now let’s discuss what you did wrong below.

You entered a market without a skill! Anybody can buy and sell but it takes an entrepreneur to make sales and profit.

You are doing what many are already doing, you ought to introduce something new and unique, be it a service or product.

You are selling what people can get anywhere. Therefore, you are in competition by default and you can’t control the price.

You are supposed to do a feasibility study before embarking on any trade and that study would reveal steps to take.

You should be selling what the people need and NOT what you think is nice and would be good on them or for them. Customer is king and not the seller. You don’t stock products with your taste but by their taste.

There is something called KYC in business - Know Your Customer! Identify their needs, their challenges, their shopping pattern and taste! Boom, provide solution and tailor your idea to suit their needs - they will come looking for you.

In business, if it’s your intention to be successful which I am hoping you are! Then, the ultimate goal should be owning your own line of products and not to be in the middle. Be the producer! Be the provider! Acquire some skills and establish something.

Degrees are amazing but they are no longer a tool for success and there is no time attached to it, they can be acquired at anytime.

We should start creating jobs by acquiring skills to the benefit of the community and self.

Where you are a trained Engineer, it makes more sense to start a business related to your field because you already have the knowledge and the technical know how, why sell clothes and shoes?

Please stop hurting your business out of your own negligence - a business plan is a necessity.

Good luck.

#lifeofanentrepreneur

Tunde Oluomo is payment expert and a Business Consultant with Bank of Ireland.