The Product

Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday January 14, 2013 at 15:24:46:

One of the first steps to operating a money making business in Nigeria is by first deciding on a product. What product do you want to offer to people? What product can you produce and/or market?

A product is simply an item that can satisfy the wants of the intended user. When it comes to a product oriented business, you should know that the customer is always king and you should be able to offer what he wants.

A product is what can make you rich and it's what people may need or just want. If you can develop and deliver the needed products to your potential market, then you are already set to make money.

Examples of products
Here are some products that sell well in Nigeria

- Food products: biscuits, noodles, rice, chin chin, ice cream yoghurt, goat meat, fried chicken and so on.

- Clothing: Designer clothes, watches, perfumes, shoes, belts, etc

- Housing products: cement, furniture, carpet, curtains, mosquito nets, kitchen ware, etc

- Electronic products: Computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, tv sets, refrigerators, generators and so on.

Deciding on your product
When you want to decide on your product, you would need to do it based on what the market wants. Do a market research, decide on your product and then offer it to people. If you can manufacture the item, it could be more profitable for you in the long run and you can then decide on how to produce and distribute to the target market.

Some questions you'd need to ask may be as follows:

- What type of product is it?
- Is it better to produce or purchase them?
- What is your target market price?
- Would it still be in demand in the long term?
- How does it get distributed?

Cost of production
If you do decide on manufacturing the product, you would need to consider a lot of things such as :

- Raw materials
- Labour
- Production process
- Storage costs
- Delivery costs

Those are the basic costs associated with producing an item meant for the market to satisfy human wants and you would need to have a breakdown of the costs associated to arriving at the final product and then choose a price with of course some profit.

Single product or Multi-product: Which is better?
Some companies do better with a single product while some do better with many products so it depends on how they are able to penetrate the market and their area of specialty. At times a single product business can offer a better quality than another that produces a lot of stuff.

Marketing your product
In order to generate sales and hence profit from your product business, you's need to advertise it somehow. You can do this by telling your friends, contacts and even using public media. Some advertising plans could be free while some may be paid and you should consider it as an investment worth having that promotes sales. You should also be able to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing activities in order to decide whether to continue with it or apply a better method.