Choosing a legal structure for your business in Nigeria, whether it is today old or you have been running it for a few years is a decision that needs to be made with a lot of clarity and certainty. This is because the structure of your business, whether as a Business Name or a Limited Liability Company (LLC) will determine your factors such as ownership, cost, liability, legal personality, management, fundraising ability, tax and regulatory requirements, etc.
For a better understanding, we’ll use a hypothetical founder named Tosan Ahmed. Tosan Ahmed is a Lagos-based entrepreneur running a fish farm business, supplying frozen and smoked fish to customers within Lagos. He started this business one year ago and has been able to maintain the business all by himself. However, his goal is to expand his business to at least four states in Nigeria and this requires capital investment. He has decided to either go to the Bank for a loan or approach a High Network Individual (HNI) for investment. Here are a few points Tosan should consider before choosing the structure that is ideal for him.
Formation: A Business Name is divided into Sole Proprietorship (also known as a one-man business, and Partnership. A Sole Proprietorship can be formed as a one-man business, while a Partnership can be formed by two (2) to twenty (20) people. A Limited Liability Company is categorized into Private or Public Limited Liability Companies. A private LLC can be incorporated by one person as a sole director or shareholder with a maximum of 50 members, while a public LLC must have a minimum of 2 members with no maximum limit.
Affordability: It is more affordable and inexpensive to register a business name compared to an LLC which can be more expensive to set up.
Transfer of Ownership: For a Business Name, the death or separation of the owner from the business immediately terminates the business because the owner is not separate from the business. However, for an LLC, the directors and shareholders are separate from the business and the death of any member of the business does not terminate the business as shares can be transferred to others.
Financial Liability: Where the owner (s) of the business owes a debt, the owners are personally liable for the debts in the case of a Business Name, unlike an LLC where the debts of the company are owed by the company and not personally by the shareholders of the company.
Legal Personality: In the case of a legal action, for a Business Name, the owner can sue and be sued directly, but for an LLC, the company can sue and be sued.
Documents: After registration of a Business Name, the owner received a Business Name Registration Number (for example – BN1234567), a Certificate of Registration and a Status Report but for a Limited Liability Company, the owner (s) will receive a Company Registration Number (for example – RC1234567), Tax Identification Number, Memorandum and Articles of Association and a Status Report from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which is the body responsible for formation and management of companies in Nigeria.
Raising Capital: It is more difficult to raise capital with a business name but it is relatively easier to raise capital with an LLC because the shares of the company can be used as equity in exchange for investment.
Tax Requirments: For a business name, the owners are expected to file and pay Personal Income Tax individually to the state body responsible for collecting taxes, for example – the Joint Tax Board (JTB); while for an LLC, the company is a taxable person and all taxes such as Companies Income Tax is to be filed and paid to the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS)
These are some key points you or Tosan Ahmed, our hypothetical entrepreneur consider when choosing between a business name or a limited liability company.
When you are ready to begin, we can help you by setting up your company or business name without stress or complex paperwork. To get started with the incorporation process, go to www.corporatebestie.com/pricing to select a package that is right for your business.
Need further support? We are always available to help. You can contact us via email or send us message to our support team on WhatsApp
Like most people during the holidays, entrepreneurs and their employees commit time to spend with family and friends either traveling and/or celebrating. However, for a typical entrepreneur who is passionate about his/her business, there is the tendency to worry about how the business is performing or will do during and after the holidays. Here are some things to do in advance to protect your business during the holiday season.
1. Monitor your online presence: Keep an eye on your website, social media accounts, and online reviews to ensure that your business is represented accurately and positively. Watch out for comments on posts as well and be sure to have the right links and contact details so customers can reach you if necessary.
2. Secure your physical location: If you have a physical office make sure your store or office is well-lit and secure, and consider installing security cameras or hiring security personnel if necessary.
3. Protect your data: Set up a system to back up your data regularly, and implement additional security measures such as password protection and two-factor authentication (2FA).
4. Take precautions with holiday promotions: Be mindful of any promotions or discounts you offer or promised to customers, and be sure to clearly communicate any terms and conditions.
5. Protect your inventory: Keep track of your inventory levels, and consider implementing additional security measures such as inventory tracking software or hiring additional staff to help manage inventory so you know when you’re out and what needs to be replaced before resuming back from the holiday.
6. Manage cash flow carefully: Keep track of your financials and be prepared for any unexpected expenses that may arise during and after the holiday season. Stay prepared.
7. Communicate with your customers: Keep your customers informed about any changes or disruptions to your business, including opening and closing times, how to contact you if necessary during the holidays and be responsive to any questions or concerns they may have.
8. Stay informed about local laws and regulations: Be aware of any local laws or regulations that may impact your business, and take steps to ensure that you are in compliance. For example, the Corporate Affairs Commission recently announced that for Nigerian businesses, the National Identification Number (NIN) will be mandatory to access all its services (Read more). It is important to know these kind of information so you can stay compliant with it in your business.
9. Seek legal advice: If you have any legal concerns or questions, consider seeking the advice of a lawyer or other legal professional.
To get support with business incorporation and compliance requirements for your business, send an email to hello (@) corporatebestie.com
In order to serve thousands of entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium enterprises to formalize their businesses and stay compliant with business regulations, starting January 2nd, 2023, we are increasing some of our prices for new entity registrations, post-incorporation and cross-border expansion services.
The new price schedule is as follows:
A. New Entity Registrations:
Sole Proprietorship – From N15,000 to N20,000
Partnership – From N18,000 to N23,000
Limited Liability Company – From N35,000 to N45,000
B. Compliance/Post-Incorporation Services
Filing of Annual Returns – From N10,000 to N15,000
Post-Incorporation services – From N20,000 to N25,000
C. US Incorporation (LLC/C-Corps) – From $399 to $500
All our service timelines and bonus services such as tax identification number, business bank account and access to the Founder Toolbox still remain the same and we are working hard to ensure a seamless experience for all our customer and partners going forward.
With this new prices, we will be able to increase the size of our team, launch our brand-new web app, and introduce new features for an easy and seamless experience.
New Features To Expect in 2023: 1. New & improved website (Here’s a sneak peek)
2. Access to a personalized dashboard to track company incorporation processes and documents. 3. Access to more business success tools 4. Business features and capacity development programs 5. Automated compliance reminders and more…
We are excited to announce our 2022 Black Friday Super Deal starting from Monday 21st to Friday 25th November, 2022. This will enable Nigerian entrepreneurs to access more business opportunities, while also saving some money for other business activities.
“The Nigerian economy is ultimately driven by millions of hardworking, entrepreneurial, and resilient individuals who are currently creating jobs, shared prosperity, solving diverse problems with their businesses. Entrepreneurs and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) account for 96% of all business activities in the economy, with an estimation of over 42 million MSMEs, creating 47% of jobs and contributing 50% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, many of these “Business Heros” still lack the opportunities to grow profitable and sustainable businesses due to non-formalization. This is why we are excited about the opportunity to support more entrepreneurs to launch, formalize and grow their businesses through our Black Friday Deals”. – Bestie Atti, CEO of CorporateBestie says.
Entrepreneurs can earn up to N12,000 cash back when they use any of our New Entity Registration Services.
This Super Deal applies to Sole Proprietorship, Limited Liability Company, Partnership and Incorporated Trustees only.
Registration/Incorporation Documents, Tax Identification Number (TIN), Business Bank Account and access to other business success tools and resources are all inclusive.
Arlington, TX – Corporate Bestie, a technology company designed to support up and coming entrepreneurs, has announced that it has registered multiple new companies which are now open for business. The company provides support for these new businesses with the belief that entrepreneurship remains a proven, tested, and trusted strategy for social and economic development. Entrepreneurship through new business creation and cross-border expansion are necessities for both emerging and developed economies.
Bestie Atti, Co-Founder/CEO – Corporate Bestie
Corporate Bestie provides an all-in-one tool for entrepreneurs and enterprises to incorporate, manage compliance, and build cross-border businesses without stress or complex paperwork. Entrepreneurs can register with the company and receive access to registration/incorporation documents, a Tax Identification Number, business bank account, and regulatory compliance services, along with other tools and resources for business growth.
As the world slowly heals from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to accelerate toward the fourth industrial revolution, new businesses in local and global markets essentially drive innovation, create new jobs, improve incomes, enhance productivity, and address societal challenges highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) account for about 99% of firms and 70% of all jobs, and they contribute more than 50% of the Gross Domestic Product in high-income countries worldwide.
Corporate Bestie is actively registering new companies all the time, and routinely helps to promote these emerging markets on its various social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. The company believes that digital marketing holds a firm place in the advancement of new companies and helps new entrepreneurs to impact the global economy. Corporate Bestie supports its new clients by helping them identify problems and develop innovative solutions to solve those problems within their local communities or cross-border markets.
The company also helps these new companies to succeed where others have failed. According to available data, the failure rate for businesses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Nigeria within the first 5 years is 50%, 60%, 30%, and 80% respectively. The factors that lead to the failure of these businesses and startups include limited knowledge and market insights, poor access to capital, poor corporate governance structures, slow adoption of digital technologies, poor access to the market, and poor leadership skills amongst others.
Bestie Atti, a lawyer, business expert, and co-founder of Corporate Bestie and Innovation Growth Hub is helping to mitigate these challenges. “Our mission is to ensure that anyone, anywhere who identifies as an entrepreneur and changing the world with their potential billion-dollar ideas have access to the tools and resources to start, manage and scale their business”. She says.
Serving customers across three markets – Nigeria, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Corporate Bestie makes it possible for entrepreneurs to easily obtain and access their business incorporation documents, tax identification number, business bank account, permits, and a ‘founder toolbox’ containing selected tools to help businesses succeed as they start and grow their businesses. CorporateBestie facilitates high rates of incorporation, business compliance, and cross-border expansion among entrepreneurs and enterprises thereby leading to higher rates of business formalization, continuity, access to capital, access to market, more consistent revenue flow, more job creation, and contribution to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Through her second company, Innovation Growth Hub (IGHub), a creative, business, and technology incubation hub, Bestie Atti and her team are helping to train and provide startup entrepreneurs and MSMEs with technology skills and tools to accelerate them for the 4th industrial revolution (4IR). IGHub has completed entrepreneurship and digital transformation programs for companies such as Google, Meta, Ford Foundation, Foundation for Partnership Initiative for the Niger Delta (PIND), and First Bank of Nigeria, among others which impacted over 30,000 individuals and MSMEs.
Ms. Atti is an alumnus of Founder Institute, a silicon-valley-based pre-seed accelerator and the most proven network to turn ideas into fundable companies. Since 2009, Founder Institute has launched over 6,000 companies that have raised over $1.75BN in funding and are building meaningful businesses across 200+ cities and 95+ countries. She is also a startup mentor on the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, the largest African philanthropic initiative committed to empowering African entrepreneurs.
Corporate Bestie is set to launch its #100kFounders project this November to provide entrepreneurship education, business formalization, financial inclusion, and digital transformation for one hundred thousand entrepreneurs in disadvantaged and underserved communities across Nigeria and America. The project will target solutions that can address the world’s most pressing challenges via entrepreneurship and innovation.
Corporate Bestie is an online service for entrepreneurs to register their businesses and build cross-border companies, gaining access to registration/incorporation documents, a Tax Identification Number, business bank account, and regulatory compliance services, along with other tools and resources for business growth.
The success of any organization depends on its established structures, and one of such structures is business formalization. A formalized or registered business guarantees protection for your business or company name from being used by other entrepreneurs, access to credit facilities, investor trust, customer loyalty, and access to local and international opportunities.
If you are in business for profit or you are running a profit-making organization, there are 3 key business structures you can consider adopting to help protect your business.
1. Sole Proprietorship
A sole proprietorship, otherwise known as a one-man/woman business is designed as its name implies. It is managed usually by an individual who bears all the profits, risks, and liabilities of that company. He/She is responsible for all business decisions. This registration type only protects the name of the business but does not guarantee the legal personality of the business. The business owner cannot sue or be sued in the name of the business, hence any legal matters will be directed to the business owner personally. Also, the death of the business owner will automatically bring the business to an end.
The advantages of this type of registration are that it is more affordable and easier to set up. The business owner can also upgrade the business structure to a limited liability structure when he/she is ready to do so at any time.
2. Partnership
A partnership structure has similar features to a sole proprietorship and is both categorized as Business Names. In other words, the partnership registration only secures the name of the partnership and does not confer any other legal personality on the business like the case of a sole proprietorship. It is also very easy and affordable to set up. A partnership structure can have between 2-20 partners in the partnership business. However, the risks and liabilities of a sole proprietorship also apply to this.
3. Limited Liability Company
This type of structure is a more sustainable structure and ideal for anyone looking to build a long-term business. This form of registration confers a legal personality on the business, separate from the business owner. The owners of the business are known as shareholders, while directors run the day-to-day operations of the business.
This structure also guarantees the longevity of the business because the death of any director or shareholder does not mean the end of the business. The shares of each shareholder can be re-issued or transferred to another.
An individual can also register as the sole director or shareholder of the business, thereby guaranteeing his interest and rights in the business.
If you are still finding it difficult to decide which of these structures is best suited for your business, you can take our Quiz via this link: https://bit.ly/cbbizquiz
To get started on your company registration, go to www.corporatebestie.com or chat with one of your Business Advisors on Whatsapp
In Nigeria and across the world. access to finance has been quoted to be one of the most significant hindrances to MSME Development. In curbing this challenge, entrepreneurs and organizations are constantly coming up with new ways to ensure that this challenge is surmounted. In order to efficiently achieve their objectives, such organizations must comply with the laid down rules and regulations of the extant laws.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) provides regulatory oversight on financial institutions and finance services in Nigeria and provides laws, guidelines and policies to facilitate such organizations. The CBN regulates finance companies through its Revised Guidelines for Finance Companies in Nigeria (the “Guidelines”) issued in 2014.
Meaning of a Finance Company
A Finance Company unless otherwise stated, means a company licensed to carry on Finance Company business. Finance Company Business means the business of providing financial services to individual consumers and to industrial, commercial, or agricultural enterprises.
Permissible Activities of Finance Companies
Operators of a Finance Company shall be permitted to perform, amongst others, the following activities:
Consumer Loans
Funds Management
Asset Finance
Project Finance
Local and International Trade Finance
Debt Factoring
Debt Securitization
Debt Administration
Financial Consultancy
Loan Syndication
Warehouse Receipt Finance
Covered Bonds
Issuing of vouchers, coupons, cards and token stamps,
Requirements for the Grant of A Finance License
The requirements for the grant of a finance license are in two (2) phases:
Phase 1:
In order to operate a finance company in Nigeria, the company must obtain a finance company license from the Central Bank of Nigeria through an application in writing to the Governor of CBN. Such application shall be accompanied by:
a non-refundable application fee of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) payable to the CBN;
a deposit of the minimum capital of N100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira) with the CBN;
evidence of payment of the minimum capital of N100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira by the proposed shareholders;
a detailed business plan/feasibility study;
a copy of the draft memorandum and articles of association of the finance company;
a copy of the letter of intent to subscribe to the company signed by each subscriber;
a copy of the list of proposed shareholders in tabular form showing their businesses, residential addresses and the names and addresses of their bankers;
a signed and dated curriculum vitae of the proposed directors of the finance company;
a copy of the draft manual of operations such as the enterprise management framework, credit policy etc.
Phase 2:
Upon incorporation at the CAC and prior to commencement of business, the finance company is required to submit the following documents to the CBN.
A certified true copy of the certificate of incorporation and other incorporation documents of the finance company.
A copy of the shareholders’ register in which the equity interest of each shareholder is properly reflected (together with the original for sighting) and a copy of the share certificate issued to each shareholder.
A copy of the opening statement of affairs audited by an approved firm of accountants practicing in Nigeria.
A copy of the letters of offer and acceptance of employment by each management staff and a written confirmation that the management team approved by the CBN has been put in place.
A letter of undertaking to comply with all the rules and regulations guiding the operations of finance companies.
Evidence of registration with the Finance Company’s association umbrella body.
Evidence of payment of licensing fee of N250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira).
Upon receipt of the above, the CBN will conduct a physical inspection on the premises of the finance company and where it is satisfied that all requirements have been fulfilled, a finance company license may be issued.
Many Nigerian students today aspire to be self-sufficient rather than relying on their parents or guardians for financial support, especially with the incessant strike in the public universities by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). You might be wondering “What kind of business can I start?” The first step is to figure out what kind of business you want to start, how marketable it is, and how easy it will be for you to run with less capital.
There are numerous business opportunities available to you as a student in Nigeria. Here is a collection of some fantastic business ideas.
Selling Hair Products: Many people, particularly young women, require hair products to keep their hair looking healthy and beautiful. This is a market that you can tap into.
Buying and Selling Thrifted Clothes: You can also supplement your income by selling used clothing. This is one of the best business options for students who don’t have a lot of money.
Hairdresser Business: If hairstyling has always been your passion, you can devote your spare time to it. It doesn’t have to be full-time work; as a student, you can find clients in your spare time and supplement your income. You can also use social media to market your job and attract more clients.
Freelance Writing: Do you enjoy writing articles and blog posts for a living? You can sign up as a freelance writer on a website and start receiving orders from all around the world.
Manicure and Pedicure Business: The only essential things needed for this type of business are nail technician supplies such as a nail file kit, nail polish, and nail cleanser.
Cleaning Service: If you are an enthusiastic and tidy individual who pays close attention to the tiny details, a cleaning service would be ideal for you.
Wigs/Hair Extension Business: This business is a profitable business in Nigeria especially if you’re female. You can either learn how to make wigs or simply buy them from a supplier and resell them.
Comedian/MC: Being a master of ceremony or a comedian is a service rendering business in Nigeria. Although this business cannot be done every day you can still make good money that will sustain you for non-work days.
Forex Trading: Crypto trading is another profitable home-based business that a college and university student can successfully start. In the forex trading business, the crypto trading app also requires little investment, so you should consider this only if you are ready to learn to trade and have sound knowledge of cash flow and the exchange market.
Barbing Salon: This business is a daily income business for both men and women. You just have to know the basics of barbing.
Clothing Business: There are many options when it comes to the clothing business. It is very lucrative, you can choose to sell jeans, t-shirts, native/traditional wear and so on.
Laundry and Dry Cleaning business: This is a low capital business. You can start it in your hostel and you can expand it later on.
Phone Charging Business: Due to the epileptic power supply in Nigeria. You can make a profit from this daily income business provided you have a small generator and you’re stationed In the busy area on campus.
Organizing, Decluttering service: Are you really organized? Help others get organized and get paid for it!
Tutorials: Do you know any courses very well? Are you good in any field? Then you have the potential of becoming financially free. You could organize tutorial classes for students in your class or in lower years for a fee. The most interesting part is that they will be willing to pay as far as you know your onions. You can also add the option of writing assignments for people and get paid for it. There are so many people who thrive by writing assignments.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is another sharp way of making money as a student but requires consistency and hard work. As an affiliate marketer, you get paid a percentage of the money in which someone you referred paid for a product or service.
Sell Compiled Past Questions: Nothing sells fast in school like past question papers, especially as the exam date approaches. You can get past questions from your department and other departments, solve the questions with the help of your textbooks, then convert them to short handouts and sell them to students during exams.
Blogging: You must have heard that people make 5 figure income online through blogging. Well, It costs nothing to start a free .blogspot or .wordpress blog, and if you understand how blogging works, you will be making your money in no time.
Graphics Design: Graphics design is another money spinner for those who have the skills. Our recommendation would be that you start with Canva design tool if you are a beginner.
Sale of mobile phone accessories: There are likely chances of the mobile phone owners to need one or two phone accessories every now and then. Selling mobile phone accessories can’t be a bad idea. demand includes batteries, AirPods, battery chargers, memory cards, earpieces, pouches, screen guards, etc.
Makeup Artist: The great thing about makeup artistry is that you can work anywhere. With a job in makeup artistry, the whole world is open to you. You can work anywhere because makeup artists are needed everywhere.
Courier Delivery Service: With a courier service, you will transport and deliver parcels and packages. The charge for courier service depends on the destination and the size of the parcel or package.
Photography: Young people have more influence on today’s world business, it’s a much more common phenomenon for them to start a business. So, you can start a photography business as a teenager besides your studies and earn well.
Proofread essays: Proofreading is a high paying skill that you can learn very quickly and at-home proofreading can be profitable, flexible work to make extra money in your free time
Cleaning services: Starting a cleaning business is a great idea. There’s high demand for cleaning services, you can make good money, and you can get started with little money.
Test and review new products: According to research, around 30,000 new products are launched every year, and of those 95% end up failing. Hence, companies invest in product testing. As a student, you can register on some of the platforms that offer this service and earn money from it.
Get paid to fill out surveys: Completing paid surveys online is an easy way to make extra cash on the side. You’re unlikely to get rich with the money from survey sites, but many of them do offer real cash, gift cards, and other perks for those who provide insights for their market research initiatives.
Start a Youtube channel: Starting and growing your own Youtube channel can be a great way to make money in the long run with valuable content sharing and a target audience.
Run a car washing service: Running a car washing business is quite convenient for students, as they can use their spare time to run some services and do not need a huge capital to start.
Sell your notes: As a student, if you have enough time to create lecture notes, it can be a source of income when you make copies and sell them to your coursemates.
Baking: With students so busy these days with studying and working. If you love baking, you can make money out of it by selling to them.
Offer Childcare: So manywomen are choosing the path of making their own money due to the economic crisis we are plagued with. As a student, you can spend your free period taking care of children in daycare or creches and be paid for it at the end of the day
Become a painter and decorator: Are you creative? Do you like working with your hands? Then you are in luck because there are so many house owners who will be willing to pay for your painting/ decorating services and reduce the cost of hiring a professional.
Set up a nail salon: If you like working with people and has the gift of making nails. Then consider turning it into a business.
Set up events and party planning business: The average student knows how to party! If this sounds like you, consider converting your experience with parties into a business. You’ll need to be well-organized and have a large network of contacts.
DJ for parties and events: Students are increasingly turning their hands to DJing. Disc jockeys are in high demand for student nights, house parties or more formal events. Start off your marketing by word-of-mouth and reach out to friends and family on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or any other platform you think might be effective. Once you gain experience, you can partner with venues and events companies.
Become a freelancer: Whether it’s related to your current course or your dream career, you can offer your skills to people who need web design, illustration, writing, admin support and much more. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork are excellent for advertising your services once you’ve established yourself as a freelancer, and you’ll also gain valuable experience to add to your CV.
Start a proofreading service for essays or thesis: So, after writing your own essays, the last thing you’d want to do is edit other people’s. But consider this: you’ll gain a lot of experience with how to write an essay and, unlike when you’re doing your own work, you’ll be compensated for your time. Start advertising your skills on freelancing sites; there are thousands of people out there who are yearning for someone to proofread their work.
Build an audience you can monetize: The capacity to grab and maintain the attention of others is a valuable tool in today’s connected society. It’s one that many businesses are prepared to pay for, and one that many producers can turn into a multi-revenue-streaming business. You have several options for monetizing your audience, whether you choose to increase your following on YouTube, Instagram, or a blog (preferably a combination of channels):
Branded content on behalf of brands. Selling both tangible and digital goods (via any of the ideas on this list)
A mix of the above (they aren’t mutually exclusive)
Become a social media manager: More people have used social media as a result of the pandemic than we’ve ever seen before. There are around 4.2 billion active users worldwide as of October 2021. Brands need support managing their accounts on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, and all of the other social media platforms available. A social media manager is in charge of developing and analyzing content for a company’s social media platforms. Clients will pay you to publish interesting material, compose visually appealing videos, respond to comments, run advertisements, and more.
Voice-over Services: With emerging marketing trends, voice-over services are much in demand by big companies and startups. If you have a good voice and excellent diction, you might want to consider this. You can start small projects on Fiverr and depending on customer satisfaction, you can grow it really big.
Errand services: If you believe you have outstanding management and planning skills. All you have to do is keep an eye out for errand activities like, grocery shopping, paying utility bills, delivering items, and so on, and earn money by doing so.
Personal chef/food business: If you love cooking and hold expertise in cooking various dishes, you can be a Personal Chef as long as it doesn’t affect your studies. This business requires you to invest in mainly the cooking apparatus as well as the ingredients.
Gift curator: One of the most innovative ideas is to start an online gift store. A consumer is constantly looking for methods to customize their gifts for valentine, Christmas, anniversaries etc.
Tailoring: If you know how to sew, you might consider taking it up as a business while in university. Either by making bespoke designs or Ready to wear.
Write CVs and resumes: If you are very good with words and know how to write down, you can offer your services to write CVs and resumes for those who can not.
Test websites and apps: So many businesses are going online and they need testers. So you can make extra cash by testing websites and apps for malfunctioning and bugs.
Enter competitions: There are so many competitions either writing, drawing. Singing etc both online and offline. You can enter any of them and win the cash prize.
Betting: People make money when their favorite football team wins. If you like matched bettings, this is one way you can make money as a student.
Virtual Assistant: You can become a virtual assistant by helping busy business owners with their day to day activities and make extra money during and after school.
After deciding the preferred type of business, the next step would be to choose the right business structure that suits your business and to go ahead to register or incorporate it so that you operate a formal and legally recognized business using our business registration service.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report (Nigeria: 2012), Nigeria leads the world in the proportion of the population who believe they have the skills to run a business; almost 90% of Nigerian adults think they have the ability to become entrepreneurs. While it is one thing to start a business, having a legally registered business is proof that one is ready for business…(pun intended).
In most economies, Registration of businesses is often regulated by government agencies. In Nigeria, the body responsible for this is the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), and perform the following functions amongst others: (i) formation, incorporation, management, striking off and winding up of companies, (ii) business names, management and removal of names from the register, and (iii) the formation, incorporation, management and dissolution of incorporated trustees, as stipulated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.
With a population of over 41.5m MSMEs in Nigeria, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has revealed that only 3.1 million SMEs are currently registered in the country, which we find quite poor. We have highlighted 7 reasons why you should register or incorporate if you are thinking of starting or formalizing your Nigerian business.
1. Separate legal entity
Where a business is registered/incorporated as a limited liability company, the law considers your incorporated business to be a separate legal entity. It has the same rights and privileges as a human being, including the ability to possess property, receive credit facility (it is prohibited for an unregistered business in Nigeria to buy or sell land), do business under its common seal, incur liabilities, and sue or be held personally liable. As a result, you can take reasonable business risks while still protecting your personal assets from financial and legal risks. Your incorporated company is a legal entity on its own right and your liabilities are proportional to the number of shares you own in the company. Your personal assets cannot be seized to pay off your business’s debts, and you cannot be held liable for the debt unless you personally guaranteed the it.
2. Protection of Company Name and Brand
The first step to protecting your business name or brand is by registering the name with the Corporate Affairs Commission and additionally with the Trademarks, Patents and Designs Registry, of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. Your business name or even a similar name will be protected and cannot be used by anyone else in Nigeria.
3. Access to Credit & Grants
A registered business is more likely to attract investors than an unregistered business with no official structure. If your company is registered, you can approach a commercial bank or other financial institutions to raise funds as seed capital, sustain your business operations or to expand your operations across the globe. You can also apply for private or government related grants such as the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme to help support your business.
4. Reputation and Prestige
Business reputation and prestige is a critical part of business branding and perception. Formalizing your company can improve its reputation and indicate that it has a long-term commitment and responsible management. It instills trust by third parties such as buyers, clients, and contractors as many companies will only hire or work with registered businesses rather than individuals. You may also find that some government MDAs and companies will only do business with incorporated entities if you are a contractor/supplier. Incorporating a company can also open up new horizons and opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable.
5. Perpetual Succession
An incorporated business has its own legal personality, allowing it to continue perpetually. Contracts are made with the “company,” not with you or the other directors, shareholders, or employees. This indicates that the corporation has an unlimited life span; it will continue to exist even if the owners or directors die or leave the company, or if the company’s ownership changes. A company’s existence will come to an end only if it is formally wound up by a court order. This, among other things, helps your company to outlive you and even generations.
6. Corporate Bank account for your company
Operating a business bank account is advantageous since it allows you to separate personal and business activities. To open a corporate bank account in Nigeria, you must show proof that your company is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Furthermore, giving your customers a corporate bank name rather than your own name for payment is more professional and reliable.
7. You can Hire Employees Legally
With a registered company, you will be able to legally hire employees which will also build the confidence of potential employees in your company. Job recruiting firms and other online platforms make it easy to hire and recruit quality and skilled personnel. You will also be able to officially request for members of the National Youth Service Corps to work at your company.
