By Biodun Busari
Nigeria has over 200 million people which is the African largest market for any products or services, but entrepreneurs and business-minded persons need some dimensions of education to thrive.
Whether you want to sell products or render services to Nigerians at home or abroad, there are five types of education you must have.
In this article, five dimensions of education that will make you survive in the business world are briefly discussed below:
1. Personal education:
Anybody who wants to succeed in the business world or market space in Nigeria must first have an understanding of themself. As a person, you must know know who you are. Knowing who you are is not about your name, marital status, or age, but about SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).
You must understand your likes and dislikes, temperaments, passion, drive and other innate qualities, which distinguish you from other contemporaries and competitors in the business. Without having a personal education of yourself, it would be difficult to make headway as a business person.
2. Academic education:
Formal education can never be underestimated regardless of how people try these days to trivialise its importance. There are basic things you only acquire through academic education, which would create an enabling environment for your business to thrive.
Some quantitative reasoning and qualitative information are only learnt in formal education, and you have to familiarise yourself with them to interact with clients and customers. Formal education does not mean you should get a degree or diploma, it only requires study and understanding what experts say about a particular field. For instance, a tax-collection company owner must know the rudiments of accounting.
3. Marketplace education:
This kind of education is purely the experience of the concerned person or entrepreneur about the particular business. For instance, the person who wants to thrive in sales and marketing must have been working with a sales, marketing, or advertising agency for some time.
To handle business in Nigeria, personal and academic are very important, but marketplace education is unequivocal to the success of the business. You must know how things happen in the business or marketplace you choose.
In the marketplace education, you will understand teamwork, policy, loyalty, networking, debt and credit services, and quality assurance that revolve around the particular business you have selected to go into. Having the marketplace education reveals to you the success and failure of the business.
Money is the engine that operates every business, as you make money to make more money. Thriving in business in Nigeria and any other place must come with financial education. This is the ability to understand money.
It involves making, multiplying, and managing money. It is about the knowledge of income and expenditure, cashflow and cashback, assets and liabilities, and other things involving the finances of the business.
5. Spiritual education:
There is a spiritual aspect to everything in life including business. It is, then, important for you to have the spiritual education of your business. This will help move you closer to God by praying for your business and also asking God to guide and guard you in your dealings with your customers, and competitors in the business.
I will conclude with the words of a popular Nigerian business coach and investor, Olumide Emmanuel, “If you are going to succeed in the marketplace, you are either in the secret cult or secret place. There is no middle ground.”
