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| How to create a website for your business in Nigeria. |
Starting a new business in
Nigeria comes with a lot of challenges, maintaining an existing one also has
its own problem and stress, in this post i will show you how to create a website for your business in Nigeria. You may be thinking why you need a website for your
business because you can't operate a computer or can't afford to pay a Web
designer for one which to me it’s very cheap if only you meet the right
developer.
Most businesses need this online
presence to boost the sale and also create awareness about their product or
services. First, every business ranging from tailor, real estate, sales, or
manufacturing or any one that has to do with buying and selling or rendering of
services needs a well functional website to begin with.
Many Nigerian businesses have not
fully embrace technology and have not also impact it on their business because
of lack of proper awareness. We still dwell in the old form of buying and
selling things which cannot give you the right sales you need to grow your
business in the country and beyond.
Starting a simple site for you
tailor / Fashion design work gives you the opportunity to showcase your fashion
sense and creativity to new and existing customer, you can receive order from
people across the world for a specific style and sending it with the help of
NIPOST or other logistics in the country has even make it much easier. You may
be asking yourself a question like:
- How will I manage the website?
- How will i make people see my product?
- How can my customer contact me easily?
The current technology advancement
in the country as gone past these problems, you now have easy way to boost your
online presence. There are lot of website giving free hosting for start up
business, when you are able to afford you own hosting which is not that
expensive since you are not running a big website that may generate big traffic
in time to come, so you don’t have to worry about spending heavily on hosting
since your customers may be in hundreds or less in a month which is a good
sales if you are into fashion design or any business that doesn’t require heavy
traffic to make sales.
You can get a .com for as low as
1$ only if it’s not taken or it’s not a premium domain (Premium domain are
domain that are not too long and are very easy to remember example call.com,
food.com, cars.com or anything related to short words or alphabet.)
To answer your question on "How will i manage the website?"
I know you may be wondering how
you will manage and update your pictures or content on your website since you
don’t know anything about computer or how the internet works.
Little do you know that some web
developer also render maintenance services to their job to help you update new
arrival or fashion trend in your stock. Since your site is not that heavy,
negotiating on how much you will pay him anytime you want to upload or update
new content to your website. This maintenance is base on the amount of job you
want the developer to do for you, so firstly you have to know your budget and
also know how frequently you will be updating them.
Secondly, if you are running a
simple business that does not require you to keep updating your content every
time, you can be sure of spending less since your next update will be in a month
time or more. Starting this kind of simple site should not cost you less than #25,000 Naira for years which combine
your domain name and hosting.
In this plan, owner of the
website are advice to choose a lasting domain name and also choose a good
platform that will make it easier for you to move your website to a new hosting
site whenever you wish. Platform like WordPress, Joomla, and Blogger can really
serve the purpose. Discussing this with your developer will also give you an
insight on how to plan for the future in case things change and he will also
help you to back up your website in case of breakdown of site.
To answer your question on
"How will i make people see my
product?"
Staying in your store / shop
without letting people to know what you do and what you have in stock has a way
of dropping your sales and your presence. There are free platform you can
engage with people and also promote yourself without spending anything unless
you wish to engage in Facebook Advert or other social media advert wish is not
too expensive depending on your budget. Posting your store URL and product on
different social media platform has a way of drawing people attention to your
website.
These processes are very easy to
do and you can do all this without having a laptop or a desktop but with the
use of your smart phone. You can even edit and manage your website with your Smartphone.
You only need the developer to finish with the front-end of your website, and
then you operate from the back-end. You may only need him whenever you need a
major stuff to be done on your website which could be resolve anywhere he
maybe.
Many small scale businesses in
Nigeria need to start embracing technology to help boost their business, this
simple principle can be apply on your Laundry Store, Phone Business, Computer
Store and Accessories, Restaurant, Fashion Designer, Boutique Owners, Poultry
Business, Shoe Markers, Customized T-Shirt and Trouser, Real estate, Book
Store, Hospital , Small or large Supermarket and many more.
Note: You can integrate automatic WhatsApp Messenger to this store for customer to be able to have a one-on-one chat with you regarding the product or services they want.
Since you don’t way any payment gateway (Receiving payment via MasterCard, Visa or Verve) on your website, you can use this new WhatsApp features to receive payment when both parties has come to a deal, this could be done by bank transfer or by bank deposit depending on your choose, and it if you wish to have a payment gateway integrate into your website then you need to discuss it with your developer.
The following are list of some
hosting company you can use to start up your online business pending when you
can afford to get a paid hosting service.
1. Webhost
Bandwidth: 100GB
Disk Space: 1.5GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Cpanel
MySQL Databases: 2
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 5
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: Yes
Bandwidth: 6GB
Disk Space: 250MB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Elefante
MySQL Databases: 1
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 3
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: No
Bandwidth: 250GB
Disk Space: 10GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Cpanel
MySQL Databases: 1
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 1
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: Yes
4.Byehost
Bandwidth: 50GB
Disk Space: 1GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Cpanel
MySQL Databases: 5
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 5
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: Yes
5. AwardSpace
Bandwidth: 5GB
Disk Space: 1GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Proprietary
MySQL Databases: 1
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 1
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: Yes
Bandwidth: 4GB
Disk Space: 200GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Proprietary
MySQL Databases: 1
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 1
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: Yes
7. U Host Full
Bandwidth: 1000GB
Disk Space: 1000GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Proprietary
MySQL Databases: 2
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 2
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: Yes
Bandwidth: 200GB
Disk Space: 20GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Cpanel
MySQL Databases: 3
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 3
Domain Hosting: Yes
FTP: Yes
Bandwidth: 1GB
Disk Space: 100GB
Advert on your site: No
Panel: Cpanel
MySQL Databases: 1
Website: 1
E-mail Account: 1
Domain Hosting Yes
FTP: Yes
Please take you time to choose
the best hosting that suit your needs and also go through their terms and
condition before signing up. Take advantage of this global trend and boost your
business to people around you. Please drop your comment on this topic Thanks.