An exceptionally large percentage of Nigerian youths could not figure out where to channel their energy. While some had never lifted a finger in the light of creating a sustainable business towards their financial independence, some still jump from one economic activity to the other. In any case, if you fall into any of this set, this article will make a difference.

The Challenge
How many times did you surf the internet for a particular need, at the end of the long search, luckily you were able to find what you want, getting it to your doorstep now becomes a problem.

In most cases, the payment option available to you is not accepted by the merchant online or because most of the merchants online who offer valuable products you are interested in do not want to ship to Nigeria. This is the experience of many web-surfers from Nigeria.

As a budding entrepreneur, will you be willing to start an internet home based concierge service?

What is Concierge Business?
From the English meaning of concierge, we can deduce; concierge business simply means errand business. But in this case it will be virtual in its operational process. It may involve a process of you getting the need of someone to his doorstep.

What is the modus operandi?
More often than not, your customers would have already spotted what they want to buy and even the merchant they want to buy from. You only need to go position yourself where web-shoppers can find you. If they can find you, expect them to tell you what they want to buy and where to get it.

Then your responsibility is to get their need to their door-step. From practice, you charge them; this must include the cost of getting the product to them, then you use the Graphcard platform to get the goods or services to them. Simple!

Starting your own concierge business?
You may not be interested in learning how to start an errand business right now but that is likely because you are not familiar with just how easy this business is to start up and operate. Errand business remains one of the fastest growing business so it is the easiest internet business to start.

Below are some of the things you need to put in place to start a successful Online Concierge Business?
·    Legal Structure:  It is very important for you to decide from the very start the legal structure of your business. You can start as a sole proprietor, or go into partnership with any of your friends
·    Virtual US address; it is very important you create a virtual US Address. This is because most merchants online prefer to ship directly to the United States.
·    Graphcard Account; Visit www.graphcard.com to create a merchant account.
·    Local Bank Account; you will need a Current Account, either corporate or individual with any of the Nigerian commercial banks.
·    Distribution Channel; this is very important. This is simply because this is the route to get the goods your clients ordered for, back to them.

Marketing
As with many other businesses, you will have to invest in marketing. For an errand service, networking will be a powerful tool to help build your client list. However, before you begin marketing, you will have to create a website so that people can find out about your services and pricing and a corporate email account.

If however you don’t know anything about website design you can call 08051614052 to book for a class on how to develop simple website with content management system using Joomla 1.5.

Profitability
Since the business is service based, you don’t have to invest anything at the first instance. That means this is a business you can start with no capital. Meanwhile you may charge a client as low as $20 on each service. If you are able to get an average of 50 clients per month, you will be earning extra $1,000 monthly.

Last Note;
Since errand business is Internet based, you will need to learn the basics of how to do business on the Internet, most especially how to sell on the Internet. You can get a copy of the book Beginners Guide To e-Commerce, with the book you can be assured of a foundational knowledge of how to do business on the internet.

Contributed By Olu Oludimu, 08051614052