I met a young mother that newly moved into our street. I saw her in someone’s shop, braiding someone’s hair. That was the first time I saw her. I was told by the shop owner that she’s good in hairdressing. I wasn’t so keen to have her as my hairdresser but I promised I will give her a try. She doesn’t have a salon, but I didn’t see that as an issue. I mean she can do home services, right? So, this week I asked her to come over to my house to plait my hair, which she did.

During the exercise, I noticed that she uses oil for my hair and the attachment instead of the usual hair pomade. I found out that the oil she’s using is made from our local pear and that she is the one that extracts it. In fact she told me she sells them whenever she is able to get enough pears to produce the oil in large quantity. She expressed her fear on how she will keep the market going when pears go out of season. I encouraged her to save up money from hairdressing charges to invest in that. She said she won’t because she doesn’t have a salon yet, which she said was her major target for now.

She complained that nobody wanted to help her with the money for renting a shop and equipping the salon. I advised her to put up signs at the front of her house and at some strategic places around so that people will know about her and her home-made oils. This idea didn’t go down well with her because she felt she was too big for such a thing – you know, people will look down on her if she can’t afford a salon, banners, posters, flyers and all. Besides, home-service wasn’t in her plan. It’s either a big salon or nothing. Oh well, I took a chance on someone I hardly know and my helping hand and ideas were thrown right back at me. So, she will have to keep waiting for someone to invest on opening a big well-equipped salon for her before she can produce more oil and advertise her business.

This type of situation isn’t peculiar to this lady. I know of so many people who had cases like hers. A distant relative of mine was one of them. He had his apprenticeship with someone from my hometown, but along the line they had a squabble and the relationship was severed. He came back to his parents’ house and refused to look for another place to continue his apprenticeship. He later approached a relative who he believed could provide him with a seed capital to start a business. This man he approached told him that he wasn’t ripe enough to go into a large-scale business. So he should either start it on a small scale or do some years of apprenticeship with him before he will help him (so I guess he wasn’t even comfortable with giving him much money). My cousin couldn’t bring himself down to accept any of these offers. Instead he started complaining that nobody wants to help him to progress.

So I ask, do we really contribute to our joblessness? Are we sure we haven’t been sending away our investors because we want to start big? How many people have reached out to us and later withdrew because they felt we don’t need them? Are we sending away our jobs and businesses?

I have known people who would rather sit down at home than go for that small job by the corner. Someone once told me that I should not take up small jobs because they will ‘block’ big ones from coming (I hope she has taken back her words). I know that some people get stuck in smaller jobs (story for another day) but should we decide to ignore a humble beginning because we are afraid we will get stuck? Everyone won’t be lucky to start it big. Even those that started small still make it big if they have vision and focus. Besides, we should see these small jobs and small scale businesses as training grounds for bigger things.

Sometimes the things we believe to be small may be something big in disguise. Take the case of the hairdresser as an example. If she accepts to put up a sign at the front of her house, she will attract a lot of customers because there is no hairdressing salon on the street (and a big street at that). But her reluctance could cost her a lot if she doesn’t act fast because someone else may see that business opportunity and grab it. And, if you look at it, she wouldn’t pay for a shop if she goes for home services, or uses her apartment as her make-shift shop. In fact, she will make more income from home-services because their charges are higher.

It is good to have big dreams, but it is also good to start small. Like I stated earlier, not everyone will be lucky to start big, and remain big. Starting big exposes us to bigger risks and investors may not be comfortable to entrust us with huge responsibilities unless they are sure their investments are safe. This is also true with employers who would rather not entrust a rookie with ‘juicy’ positions.

So I’ll say, let your business idea have a big picture, but don’t send away someone that will help you to start it small. Pick up that job and climb your way up.

Dream big, but you can start small.

“Cheapest way of shipping from China to Nigeria” and “Shipping from Nigeria to China” were amongst the most common queries over the past 12 months. China is the origin of 30% of the imported items into Nigeria. This is at least three times more than the runner up. Both countries have enjoyed an amicable trade relationship culminating in a bilateral currency swap agreement signed in 2018, said to be worth $2.5 Billion.

Shipping from China to Nigeria, especially container size cargo, requires caution and a fair understanding of the shipping process.

8 critical guidelines are provided as follows:

1. Select your trade terms carefully. If possible, seek the counsel of a legal mind if there are terms that are not understood.
2. For items that have singular packaging, ensure that the packages are designed for scale and in English.
3. Establish a means of quality control for items whilst they are still in China. It is within your reach to request for the manufacturers certificate of production with the relevant standards from your supplier. Lab test results may also be requested for food items.
4. Invest time and energy in building a good relationship with your supplier.
5. Incoterms should be looked into, with a bid to selecting the most appropriate for your cargo.
6. Paperwork is crucial! Obtain Form M, pro forma invoice, packing list and bill of lading well ahead of time.
7. Shipping documents from China must be filled correctly, with goods classified according to the appropriate HS code. This is vital for import duty calculations.
8. Stay updated with the list of import prohibited items and avoid such.

Once you are able to follow these steps, there should not be any hitches with your shipment as it voyages from the People’s Republic of China to the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

This is a Guest Post from Pinacrest Cargo

LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business and professional community.

It is a business-oriented social networking site which is primarily used for professional linkages and its network members are called “connections” (which other social network sites and apps refer to as “friends” or “followers”). Just like each other social network has its main purpose for creation, LinkedIn as a social network, is created for professional networking and it is mainly used for that.

This American business and employment-oriented service functions through websites and mobile apps; it was founded on December 28, 2002 and was launched on May 5, 2003. Since then, it has been the dominant social network for the business and the professional community

As of June 2019, LinkedIn is estimated to have over 630 million registered members in 200 countries which are professionals in different fields of human endeavors. Also, they include business tycoons, captains of industries and government parastatals.

As a job seeker, LinkedIn is the best social network you should get addicted to, as it would interest you to know that (according to LinkedIn), there are more than 20 million jobs in this social network. You could be qualified or interested in any of them.

Employers and recruiters post job updates and vacancies and job seekers find job opportunities that interest them, and get updates about job vacancies to apply for.

There have been so many occasions where individuals get jobs on LinkedIn they didn’t apply for, through recommendations from there connection(s).

As a student, graduate or young professional, LinkedIn is your friend and you should make it your favorite social network so to build and expand your connections, meet new professionals in your field and from other fields of human endeavors.

It is estimated that more than one million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages , formerly known as company profiles.

LinkedIn is one of the best social networks you can market yourself, your company and your brands or products, and get recognition from local and international companies.

Your CV can be reviewed on LinkedIn, your experiences can be reviewed on LinkedIn and you can get things done hitch free, more easier than as it is in the real world. LinkedIn establishes the perfect environment for building and expanding your network.

You can increase your company’s exposure, and sell your brand or products through LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Company Pages increases your company credibility and attract business partners and investors to your business.

By receiving recommendations and having more connections on LinkedIn, it is a great opportunity for individuals to get offers and opportunities.

Most companies and employers of labour demand LinkedIn profile of the job seekers and the most job interview outcome is determined by the job applicant’s LinkedIn profile.

There is constant improvement in the internet space by network providers and developers, for the pleasure of the internet users. These improvements are designed to increase efficiency and productivity of the customers.

The importance of internet speed cannot be overemphasized as internet speed promotes productivity and saves a lot of human time.

It is a great achievement on how the internet speed has developed from good to better (although we are still hoping for the best, especially in this part of the world called Nigeria) as there has been constant improvement in the internet speed right from the time 2G network experience was introduced.

Nigeria wasn’t left behind in this internet technological improvements as it joined, trying to catch up with the rest of the world countries, on internet speed improvements.

Internet speed improvement became noticeable from the year 1990 when the first 2G was introduced in the United States of America and was launched in the year 1992.

The 2G networks were the first network technology to offer cellular data services and Short Message Service (SMS messaging) but since it’s the first cellular data technological invention, the network data transfer rate was slow – very slow – and it could be said that snail was faster in terms of speed compared to the 2G network of the early 90s, although this was expected as it was the first leap into cellular data networks.

3G came into place to replace 2G in order to improve speed and the throughput of the data transmission. It achieved this cause to some extent as the internet speed of the 3G is better, and faster than that of 2G, but there is always a room for constant improvement.

Due to the fact that there are some apps and sites that require high internet speed for accessing, 4G came into play to improve speed and increase the rate of data transmission.

Nigeria has been trying to catch up in this internet speed technological advancements but we are yet to get there when it comes to internet speed and throughput of data transmission when compared to what is enjoyed in other countries like China, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Switzerland,  and Finland.

While Nigeria is still struggling with a (scam of network) called 4G, some countries like the United States of America, China, Japan etc. are already planning of launching 5G networks.

The so called 4G we use in Nigeria is the best way the network providers charge us more for less value, by consuming our data at a higher rate, with the excuse that if you use 4G the rate of data consumption will be higher due to the throughput of the internet, causing a higher rate of data transmission. The 4G of some network providers here in Nigeria is little or no improvement for the 3G that we had as the speed can be said to be the same.

The global average for fast internet speed is about 5.5mbs/s, countries with average internet speed below 4mb/s are considered to have slow internet speed, and Nigeria falls into the group of countries with slow internet speed.

The bulk of the blame will fall on the network providers; they are the conduit pipe for the provision of internet speed. If your phone is made to be compatible with the 4G network and the data transmission rate is not equal to what 4G network should provide, then the network providers owe you some explanations.

While network providers do not make adequate provision to accommodate internet users in some areas, especially rural areas or semi-urban areas, internet users struggle to use network even with a phone compatible for 4G.

There are lesser bandwidths that could be streamed at a given time; they do this to accommodate the traffic hence slowing down the network speed.

Lastly, your tools and your device settings could also increase your internet speed or reduce the throughput of the internet.

NB: You can check the speed of your internet on Fast.com