Manage your Groceries (provisions) Store: Managing a business requires you to pay attention to many details simultaneously. Most importantly, you need to handle your staff, whether you have only a few employees or many. You need to keep your staff motivated, well-informed, and satisfied in their jobs. At the same time, you need to handle your business’s financial needs. This includes payroll, invoicing, purchasing, and handling taxes. Finally, you should always be thinking of ways to improve and increase the size of your business.
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1. Get the business background
Students love provisions, either they are buying biscuits and milk, or they are buying a sachet of beverages for tea. They keep buying one thing or the other, and most times they spend more money when they can easily buy those provisions at the comfort of their hostels or lodges.
And believe me, starting up a little provision shop in your room isn’t expensive, because your little pocket-money can be ok to start it, and continuous buying, selling and having turn over gives you good profit.
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For example, in a month you get N10,000 as pocket-money, you can buy sachet of Milo in a roll, it should be around 12 or 11 for N400/350. You can sell @ N50 per sachets, you get milk too at the same range, you can also add different kinds of biscuits some of these biscuits cost N800/1500 per carton, and the quantity inside a carton varies. Don’t forget to add sugar to your purchase, buy your little sugar nylons and tie it to different amount that is convenient for you, then you are good to go.
Don’t forget to add cereals like golden morn, corn flakes, cabin biscuits etc.
This will boost your demand more.
Get air tight containers to store your products so it will remain fresh or get be protected from rats.
Manage your Groceries (provisions) Store
2. Create a marketing plan.
Before just launching into a new area for your business, you need to plan. A good marketing plan defines your objectives, details your finances, describes staffing needs and helps you plan for the changes you anticipate. If you write a strong marketing plan and then follow it, your growth is more likely to succeed.
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3. Plan a budget.
Expansion costs money, and as the manager you will need to know where it comes from. As part of your marketing plan, you should develop a budget. You should determine if you can finance growth from the company’s own revenues or if you need to borrow. If you decide to borrow, you need a plan for repayment over time, to keep the business profitable
Manage your Groceries (provisions) Store
4. Put some money aside before you start your small business from home.
It takes time to become profitable, and you will need money to keep yourself afloat while you grow your business.
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5. Organize your time.
When you live and work in the same space, it can be difficult to separate your personal and professional life.
- Schedule office hours for yourself.
- Stay focused on your work. Avoid the television, household chores and other distractions during your office hours.
- Expect to work longer hours when you are just getting started or during particularly busy times.
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6. Get help.
Running a business from home means you can enlist your family members if you need their help.
Ask your spouse to proofread emails, or have your kids stuff envelopes if you are preparing a mailing.
7. Keep good financial records.
Whether you use software programs, electronic cash registers, or keep old-fashioned records on hand-written receipts, you need a system for recording sales and expenses. Whatever system you select, you must use it consistently and correctly. Mistakes in record-keeping can lead to serious problems for any business.
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8. Generate some growth ideas.
Any business manager may want to do more business, but you need some ideas.
Work with your staff to develop areas for growth.
Try to identify what you can do to expand the business.
Some specific considerations might include:
- Reach out to a new customer base.
- Expand your hours of service.
- Increase manufacturing and sales.
- Change your advertising schemes.
- Hire more staff.
Manage your Groceries (provisions) Store
9. Deal with customer disputes.
If your business has regular customers, you are likely to run into complaints at some point.
Handle these as respectfully as possible. Let the customer know that you respect their business and you are sorry for the problem (even if you don’t believe you are at fault). If the customer is someone with an open contract with you, then refer to the terms of the contract to see if that will provide a solution. In the end, you should balance whether possibly losing the customer’s business is worth the cost of addressing the complaint.
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Manage your Groceries (provisions) Store
10. Handle emergencies.
You should plan for any possible emergencies that could occur. This includes anything from a staff illness or injury to a fire in your store or some natural disaster. Develop a written emergency plan to account for any kind of occurrence. Your plan should address every staff member’s role, how to guide customers who may be in your facility, and how to work with emergency care staff when they arrive. Make sure that your facility is adequately stocked with the following emergency equipment, and that all staff know how to use it:
- Fire extinguishers.
- Smoke alarms and detectors.
- First aid kits.
- Automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
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11. Manage your inventory efficiently.
Inventory management can make or break a small retail business, so manage it carefully to ensure that you’re maximizing every dollar spent. Invest in small inventory quantities at first and continuously monitor inventory numbers so you know what’s selling and what isn’t. Rotate inventory frequently to remove slow sellers and replace them with new items.
- Inventory management is often dictated by the “shelf-life” of the product you are selling. For example, if you are dealing with perishable items, it is critical to move the oldest products out of your inventory first to maximize the profits of your business.
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Manage your Groceries (provisions) Store
12. Stay organized.
Organization of your time, employees, finances and inventory is one of the keys to successfully run a small business. Develop a spreadsheet that helps you keep track of all the important details so you don’t have to keep them straight in your head, and make time — at least once a week — to review everything.