Entrepreneur

Do you want to start an SMS business in Nigeria and make fortunes?
Industry expert reveals everything you need to get started…… the right way
 
One of the most lucrative online businesses you can do in Nigeria today is the Bulk SMS business. With a little work on your part, you will realize that the sheer numbers of people who will require your services are many. This is because more and more SMS messages are sent as days pass by and in about a year, some SMS website owners have grown from about 20,000 monthly SMS volume to over 8 million monthly SMS volume. When you sell at N5 per SMS unit, you make an income of N10,000 to N1Million per month.

As easy as it may sound making money from the business, your success depends on a lot of factors which may be out of your control especially if you don’t know how to develop the application and manage a website of such technical complexity. The real cost of developing an application and managing a payment gateway for SMS website is huge and is not affordable if you are a small business owner. That is the reason a lot of SMS business owners simply buy a reseller option as this is more pocket friendly.

A reseller option offers you a cheaper entry into the business, but your choice of Reseller platform is very important to your success. That is why I recommend that anyone starting bulk SMS business should make sure their SMS provider can provide satisfactory answers to help you make the right decision. I have put together the following tips to prevent you from falling into the wrong hands when starting bulk SMS business.
Here are a few questions to ask your would-be SMS provider:

1.      Will I have complete control over my website?
This is because you need to enjoy complete control of your website. A good reseller platform will provide you with access to your c-panel and database as well.

2.      Will my site look exactly like yours?
 If yes, run! You should always strive to have a unique looking website. Nobody likes a photocopy of the original.

3.      Will my site have a mobile version or mobile theme?
This is important because as at today, 62% of people in Nigeria access the internet from their mobile devices. And if your website is not accessible on their phones, they will go to another person to do business. Aside from your normal site, there has to be a mobile optimized site for your mobile phone users.
 

Nigeria’s Leading Online Payment Company Helps Small Business Owners Receive Payment from the Web.

VoguePay.com provides the innovative solution that Small businesses in Nigeria rely on to receive online payment in Nigeria  and provides a convenient way for customers to shop easily on the Internet. The service was developed with the smaller business in mind that doesn’t necessarily have the wallet to fund costly payment portal integration, but would like to see the benefits of sales and productivity. https://voguepay.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/vogue-pay-image-e1343824291474.png  

I coded a javascript/html5 bar chart for a project i worked on during the week (www.longcode247.com) . I decided to make it open source since it will be useful for most web sites/developers planning to use bar chart in their projects. The script can create an horizontal or a vertical chart.
The simple usage instructions are below. You can download it here: http://www.afrisoft.org/products/makeXchart.zip

If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Bulk SMS solution, please take a look at my bulk sms reseller solution here.

Having been struggling to make this transition myself, i have decided to share what i've learnt with I.T pros who might want to start their own companies. I am not finding it easy to make this transition but being the C.E.O of Afrisoft has really given me some insights into why many people fail at this transition. You may learn a thing or two:

Your business is about sales and profit not just coding
Don't get lost in coding or in exhausting your resources to implement features which show off latest technologies. While you have to write code to be in the software business, be sure to write high quality codes that isn’t filled with bugs or is insecure. However, the best code in the world is meaningless if nobody knows about your product. there's more to business than endless coding. The keywords here are sales and income!