HEALTHCARE - AUGUST-SEPTEMBER EDITION

www.sme360.ng 

AUG/SEPT 

2020 

An Overview 

of Medical 

Entrepreneurship 

in Nigeria 

An Insight 

into the 

Non-profit 

Business 

Side of 

Paediatrics 

in Nigeria 

Starting a 

Company 

in the 

Health 

and 

Wellness 

Space 

A Day in 

the Life 

of a Kid 

Nutritionist 

ADETUYI 

Pharm. ADEDIPO 

ON THE BUSINESS OF HEALTHCARE IN NIGERIA 

A MAKEHAVEN PUBLICATION

Editor’s Note 

AN INSIGHT INTO THE HEALTHCARE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA 

Hello everyone! Welcome to another edition of SME360. In this edition, we 

are taking out time to focus on the healthcare sector. What does starting a 

business in the healthcare sector look like? What are some of the things to 

consider? What do some experts say about this and what exactly is the state 

of medical entrepreneurship in Nigeria? 

We cannot ignore the fact that it is important to discuss the dynamics of 

running a healthcare business in Nigeria, especially during a pandemic. 

And so, we had a chat with Pharm. Adedipo Adetuyi of Oakleaf 

Pharmaceutical on the business of healthcare in Nigeria. 

Likewise, in this edition, we sought some experts across different healthcare 

niches to discuss some key areas in running a healthcare business. 

We hope you not only read, but gain valuable insights, and then pay it 

forward by sharing your knowledge with others. 

Also, we would love to hear from you and keep you updated. Connect with 

us on all social media channels with the handle "@sme360nigeria" or you 

can send us an email via contact@sme360.ng. Do not forget to subscribe to 

our magazine by visiting www.sme360.ng/subscribe 

Till our next issue, remember to stay safe. 

Ayishat Olanrewaju 

MANAGING EDITOR 

SME360 Magazine 

Published By: 

Publisher 

Folashade Adeyemo 

Managing Editor 

Ayishat Olanrewaju 

Associate Editor 

Torinmo Salau 

Creative Director 

Oladele Olanrewaju 

Digital Marketing Executive 

Boluwatife Okeowo 

Design 

DRO Design Studio 

Writers 

Samuel Moore 

Alara Charis 

Office Address: 

Advert & Subscription Enquiries: 

Connect with us on: 

14, Association Avenue, Shangisha 

Magodo, Lagos. 

contact@sme360.ng 

08027138742 

www.sme360.ng 

: @sme360nigeria 

PRINTED IN NIGERIA BY: 

Treadgold Print Management 

08064016080 info@treadgold.com.ng

CONTRIBUTORS 

ABOSEDE LEWU 

Abosede Lewu is a Medical Doctor, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist (@naijaobgyndoctor), 

Social Entrepreneur, Development Practitioner, Girls and Womens right and education 

advocate. 

Through the organization she founded; Girlsaide Initiative, Abosede has touched the lives 

of more than 20,000 girls and women through free cervical cancer screening and 

education, sexual health education project, financial empowerment, and the recently 

launched Keep All Mothers Alive (KAMA) Project has already reached over 20,000 

pregnant women thus contributing towards achieving the SDGs with focus on Maternal 

health, Cervical cancer prevention, girl child education and women economic 

empowerment. 

She has partnered with leading organizations like Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) 

Foundation, Access bank, World Connect USA, US Consulate Lagos, Novartis, Today’s 

Woman, Olusola Lanre Coaching Academy, Pinnacle Health, Capitalfield Investment etc. 

DR MONISOLA ADANIJO 

Dr Monisola Adanijo is the Departmental Head of Internal Medicine at Federal Medical 

Centre, Ebute Metta and the Medical Director at Naveen Healthcare. With experience 

spanning over 20 years, Dr Adanijo built her pathway in medicine and cardiology working 

in reputable medical centres such as Mecure Healthcare Limited, Barnes Hospital, Lagos 

University Teaching Hospital, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Chevron Hospital, Lagos 

to mention but a few. 

Her passion for preventive cardiology led her to conven the Naveen Healthcare 10,000 

Hearts Project, in order to help individuals detect, protect and correct cardiovascular 

diseases. 

Skilled in cardiovascular diagnostic procedures and treatment, she also has a Diploma in 

Leadership and Management from the University of Washington, USA. Dr Adanijo is a 

fellow of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, a member of Nigerian 

Cardiac Society, American College of Physicians, Hypertension society of Nigeria and an 

international associate of the American College of Cardiology. 

DR GBEMISOLA BOYEDE 

Dr Gbemisola Boyede is a Consultant Neurodevelopmental Paediatrician and 

Founder/CEO of Ask The Paediatricians Foundation. She started Ask The Paediatricians 

Foundation (ATP) which is a registered non-profit in Nigeria as a Facebook Group in July 

2015 out of her passion as a Paediatrician to reduce deaths of children from preventable 

causes; often rooted in ignorance of parents and caregivers. Dr Gbemisola Boyede 

obtained her MBBS degree from the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos in 

2002 and completed residency training in General Paediatrics at the Lagos University 

Teaching Hospital in 2010. Dr Boyede additionally had a subspecialty fellowship and 

Masters of Philosophy degree in Developmental Paediatrics in 2015 obtained as a Fellow 

of the African Paediatric Fellowship Programme of the University of Cape Town, South 

Africa. She is a recipient of multiple awards including one of the inaugural fellows of the 

Facebook Community Leadership Programme in 2018. 

DR. LYNDA ODOH- ANIKWE 

Dr. Lynda Odoh- Anikwe is a Nigerian trained medical doctor a healthy lifestyle coach and 

a social Entrepreneur. She is the founder of Healthify Africa a social enterprise tackling 

the rising prevalence of Non-communicable diseases in Africa through, sustainable 

health education, lifestyle modifying services and low-cost interventions. 

Over the years she has developed sustainable behavioural change support resources, 

courses, awareness aids, modification tools and interventions aimed at optimizing 

physical activity, healthy diet and stress management to help end the vicious cycle of 

Non-communicable diseases and its related economic burden in Africa. She is a proud 

member is the society of Lifestyle medicine Nigeria. 

When she is not working with patients in the hospital or spreading the gospel of healthy 

living, you can find her bonding with family and friends, cooking or enjoying leisure 

activities for relaxation. 

ILASHE OTUOGBAI 

Ilashe is a graduate of Law from the University of Lagos with a passion for writing. She is 

a content developer and fiction writer who believes normal is boring and when pen 

meets paper there’s no telling what could happen 

LINDA EGBUNA 

Linda Egbuna is a Nigerian lawyer by day and a writer by night. She is the Cofounder of 

LawbotNG, professional network for young lawyers in Nigeria, and she creates unique 

content to help Small and Medium Sized Enterprises build a larger audience for their 

businesses. 

She is also crazy about black coffee, traveling, and collecting stories from strangers. 

ALARA CHARIS 

Alara Charis is a writer who simply enjoys painting her world with words. You can reach 

her on Instagram @Alaracharis and Facebook @Alara Charis 

SAMUEL MOORE 

Samuel Moore is a freelance writer, consultant, and speaker who has experience in 

several fields including business development, branding, and finance. He aims to reach 

young entrepreneurs and SMEs with his ideas to help them grow and become 

established in the market.

CONTENT 

26 

4 BASIC FINANCIAL CONCEPTS 

EVERY ENTREPRENEUR 

SHOULD KNOW 

6 

HEALTHCARE OPPORTUNITIES 

AMID #COVID 19 

10 WAYS TO STAND OUT 

AS A NIGERIAN BRAND 

8 

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES 

IN STARTING A PHARMACEUTICAL 

BUSINESS IN NIGERIA 

28 

20 UNIQUE BUSINESS IDEAS 

TO EXPLORE POST COVID 19 

MEDICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

IN NIGERIA… MY PERSPECTIVE 

11 

13 

SME360 INTERVIEW 

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF 

A KID NUTRITIONIST 

IN NIGERIA 

31 

LIFE AS A NIGERIAN OBSTETRICIAN 

AND GYNECOLOGIST 

16 

34 

STARTING A COMPANY IN THE HEALTH 

AND FITNESS SPACE 



ADETUYI 


19

@SME360nigeria 

6 


www.sme360.ng 

4 BASIC FINANCIAL CONCEPTS 

EVERY ENTREPRENEUR 

SHOULD KNOW 

TEMITOPE ADEYEMO 

Okay, let’s get this out of the way. I am not an accountant, neither am I a financial 

expert. I am just a guy by virtue of the industry I work, had to learn these 

concepts and many more. Before I proceed, please note that if you really want to 

succeed as an entrepreneur, there are some basic financial concepts, you must 

not only know but must begin to look at your business through these concepts. 

Business at the end of the day comes down to numbers. How much you made, 

how much you spend making the money, and how efficient is the use of your 

capital. Take for instance two competing businesses; let call them Company A 

and Company B. Company A made 10 million in total revenue last year and the 

profit before tax (PBT) is 2 million. Company B made 8 million in revenue but 

made the same 2 million in PBT. Remember these are companies who sell the 

same product. Both made profit, Company A sold more than Company B but 

spent more in making that revenue than Company B. We can say, on the face 

value, that Company B is more efficient in deploying its capital than Company A 

s an entrepreneur, you may be 

making more, but how 

efficient are you. Are you 

maximising the use of your capital? 

Are you watching your overheads? Are 

you making sure that there are no 

leakages you can stop? 

The below concepts are fundamental. 

Take your time to learn them and also 

apply them to your business. 

1. Balance Sheet: is one of the 

financial statements or reports that 

captures the assets, liabilities and 

owners equity of any enterprise 

within a period of time. It summarizes 

what a company owns, what it owes 

and the value of the owners’ 

investments in the business. The 

formula for a balance sheet is A (asset) 

= L (Liabilities) + E (Equity), You asset 

includes cash, inventory, plants and 

machinery (equipment), monies 

owed the company by customers and 

clients (account receivables), anything 

the company can lay claim on that it is 

is is called an asset. Liabilities are what 

the company owes. This includes 

loans from banks, credit from 

suppliers (account payables), tax 

liabilities and so on. Simply put, 

liabilities are any financial obligations 

of a company to other entities. Lastly 

is the owner’s equity. It represents the 

owners’ investment in a company. It is 

also the claim the owners have on the 

company after all liabilities have been 

settled. 

2. Income Statement: is a financial 

report that indicates a company’s 

financial performance within a period 

of time. It is also called a profit and loss 

statement. It captures the revenue and 

expenses and net profit from 

operating and non-operating activities 

of a company over a given period in 

time. The statement is usually divided 

into two parts; operating and 

non-operating parts. The operating 

part shows the revenue and expenses 

associated with the company’s regular 

activities, while the non-operating 

section records both income and 

expenses from activities that are not 

directly related to the company’s 

normal activities. As an entrepreneur, 

what you should look at is how to keep 

increasing your revenue while 

reducing your expenses. Doing this will 

increase your net profit. 

3. Cashflow Statement: is a report 

that summarizes the movement of 

cash in and out of a business over a 

given period of time. It is a statement 

that indicates cash management in a 

business. Basically, cash coming in 

from customers or clients, buying your 

products or services, forms cash inflow 

into your business. Monies going out of 

the business, in the form of expenses 

like salaries, purchase of raw 

materials, etc., make up the cash 

outflow in your business. I want to 

emphasize that Cash is cash. Account 

receivable (monies owed to the 

company) is not cash. To keep a 

healthy cash flow as a business, you 

must ensure you collect monies due 

to the business at the earliest possible 

time and delay payment for as 

ethically as long as possible. 

4. Business valuation: is a way to 

determine the economic value of a 

business. It is done for a number of 

reasons, including when seeking new 

investors. The question that usually 

comes to mind when seeking new 

investment, especially, through equity 

is how much to sell for what percent 

of the company. It is important that 

you have a basic understanding of this 

concept and apply the same when 

talking to investors. According to the 

ACCA, there are three approaches to a 

business valuation; asset-based 

(business is estimated based on the 

value of its net assets), income-based 

(relies on the relationship between 

the share price of quoted companies 

in the same industry and the earnings 

of the company being valued) and 

cash flow-based ( determines the 

market value of a company by 

measuring the present value of future 

dividends). 

An entrepreneur must understand 

that everything in business can be 

measure and a good understanding 

of financial concepts and how to 

apply them to make decisions will go 

a long way in making the business 

more sustainable. While there are 

many more concepts to understand, a 

basic understanding of the above is 

required to both know the financial 

status of the business and how 

efficiently the business is in deploying 

its capital.


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www.sme360.ng 

10 WAYS TO STAND OUT 

AS A NIGERIAN BRAND 

REJOICE OBIKE 

very day, new small and medium enterprises (SMEs) spring up to satisfy 

consumer’s needs and demands. In a saturated market, there is a need for 

competition with new businesses being pioneered. And some of these 

SMEs either offer or sell the same services and products. The real problem isn’t 

sameness but the need to be different and stand out as a Nigerian Brand. 

To be ahead of the competition, especially in the area of innovation, brands need 

to implement strategies that can help them stand out in a crowded market. As a 

Nigerian brand, the key to standing out isn’t imitating your competition but 

finding one of the best ways to stand out so as to gain brand recognition. Even if 

the market is saturated, there is always room for a unique business model in a 

competitive market. 

You can’t sell sameness and expect to have customers. As a Nigerian brand in a 

saturated market, your best bet is to tweak your product strategy and 

differentiation to keep your customers coming. 

Here are some of the ways you can 

stand out as a Nigerian Brand: 

How to stand out as a Nigerian Brand 

1. Unique Selling Point 

As a Nigerian brand doing the same 

thing that nine of ten businesses do, 

it’s important for you to be creative 

and figure out the unique selling 

point of your brand. One of the 

biggest mistakes SMEs make is 

copying their competition instead of 

mapping a selling point while 

promoting their business. Finding a 

unique selling point needs a little bit 

of thinking outside of the box. For 

example, fintech startups sell the idea 

of a free transaction fee to their 

customers unlike traditional banks, 

it’s a unique selling point which helps 

them stand out from the normal 

banking system that requires you to 

pay a fee for every transfer. A unique 

selling point sets you apart from your 

competitors; the problem that your 

business has to tackle the solution in a 

way that it’s so much better than your 

competitors’. 

2. Focus on Customer Feedback 

It is critical you listen to what your 

customers are saying as a Nigerian 

brand. Becoming more interested in 

customer feedback would help you 

better improve your service or 

product. Focus on what your 

customers are mostly complaining 

about, not just good reviews about 

your product and services. Invest in 

social listening and have your social 

media team track your brand’s 

mentions on all your social media 

platforms. The more effort you make 

to ensure customer satisfaction, the 

more you will stand from the 

competition. Use customer feedback 

to fix the issues regarding your brand 

and improve your product.


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www.sme360.ng 

3. Add Value 

Another strategy to stand out in a 

saturated market and from other 

businesses is to add value for your 

customers. You can offer incentives 

and value-added services which are 

not part of your original service. These 

incentives or value-added services can 

be rewards, frequent buyer programs 

or home services. Not only does 

adding extra value attract more 

customers for you, it strengthens 

customer retention, which leads to 

long term growth of your business. If 

customers perceive more value in the 

product or service you are offering 

than your competitors’, they are more 

likely to purchase from you because 

you are standing out. 

4. Create a Memorable Slogan and 

Tagline 

Create a slogan or tagline that 

simplifies the essence of your brand. 

A slogan or tagline is a phrase that 

speaks your brand identity and 

personality, and when it’s memorable 

you get to stand out from other 

businesses. For example, Nike’s slogan 

is “Just Do it”, and although these 

three words have nothing to do with 

shoes, it’s memorable and conveys the 

essence of the brand. It motivates and 

stands Nike out from other shoe 

brands. When you create a slogan for 

your business, make sure it conveys 

positivity, it differentiates your brand 

from the other brands, explains a key 

benefit and it’s unforgettable. 

5. Your Brand Should Have a 

Personality 

It’s important to determine the 

personality of your brand. A brand 

with a personality easily connects 

with customers and could be what 

stands you out from other brands. Are 

you a fun or serious brand? Or 

accessible or exclusive? Any 

personality you decide for your brand 

should be authentic and speak to the 

target customer. While having a 

brand personality will help you 

engage in a true conversation with 

prospective leads and existing 

customers, you get to stand out. 

6. Offer Excellent Customer Service 

/ Experience 

Remember your customers are kings, 

so treat them like royalty. Your 

customers always have a high 

expectation of great service. In this 

age of social media, when you make 

customers wait so long or receive poor 

responses from your customer service 

representatives, your brand reputation 

will be at risk and you can hardly stand 

out. Around 75% of customers state 

they consider customer service a true 

test of a company’s competence. As a 

Nigerian brand, the one thing that can 

surely set you apart from your 

competition is how you treat your 

customers. If a customer has had a bad 

experience that remains unresolved 

with your brand, it might be a threat to 

your brand especially as it can reduce 

the number of referrals your brand can 

get or chances of standing out boldly. 

7. Build an Online Reputation 

Another way to stand out as a Nigerian 

brand is to stand out is to build an 

online presence. You need to project 

your brand reputation online. Apart 

from delivering information about 

your brand’s new product, event or to 

keep your followers updated about 

your brand’s progress, it’s a great way 

to stand out by creating exceptional 

content that blends with the brand 

and customers can relate to. In this era 

of digital media, staying off online is 

the biggest mistake a Nigerian brand 

can make. Remember out of sight is 

out of mind. 

8. Make Buying Process Seamless 

Simplify the buying process and 

eliminate third parties. By doing this, 

you reduce time wastage and avoid 

abandoned carts. Not only that, as a 

smart strategy, when your business 

offers easy payment methods like 

mobile apps, or even a Paystack 

integration which will ease the 

customer’s shopping experience and it 

will ultimately make your brand stand 

out because of the ease of shopping 

with your brand. 

9. Diversify Your Products /Services 

If you are competing in a saturated 

market, you would have to be fierce. 

And sometimes standing out requires 

you to diversify your product or service 

to capture every part of the market. 

Find pivots that are closely related to 

your brand and amplify on them. 

Always reinvent and adopt new 

technologies, products and solutions. 

10. Offer a Guarantee 

Offering a guarantee for your products 

can boost the confidence of your 

customers in your products. Adding 

this extra assurance to your brand 

messaging shows your customers and 

prospects that you really care about 

their satisfaction and can make you 

stand out. 

Conclusion 

Standing out from a crowd of other 

businesses is no easy task but is worth 

it in the long run. Highlight what 

makes you different, look out for 

customers’ needs and demands, find 

solutions and package them to serve 

your customers. And overall to gain 

competitive advantage, ensure that 

your brand offers high value with its 

products and services.

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11 


www.sme360.ng 

AN INSIGHT INTO THE NON-PROFIT 

BUSINESS SIDE OF PAEDIATRICS IN NIGERIA : 

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation Case study 

DR GBEMISOLA BOYEDE 

ccording to the World Health 

Organisation, globally 

estimated 5.3 million children 

under age five died in 2018–roughly 

half of those deaths occurred in 

sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is a major 

contributor these child deaths in 

sub-Saharan Africa. According to the 

Nigeria Demographic Health Survey 

(NDHS, 2018), the under-five mortality 

rate in Nigeria is 132 per 1,000 live 

births meaning that 1 in 8 Nigerian 

children never reach the age of 5. One 

Nigerian child under-5 years of age 

dies every minute. Most of childhood 

deaths occur in rural and indigent 

communities in Nigeria who lack 

access to good health-care facilities. 

I am an accidental non-profit social 

entrepreneur. I started Ask The 

Paediatricians Foundation out of 

pure passion to meet a gap that I 

identified was critical to the goal of 

reducing the catastrophic statistics of 

child deaths in Nigeria. As a 

Paediatrician, just like all my 

colleagues; we are all very burdened 

about reducing the mortality figures 

in children. It is even more appalling 

that 75% of these deaths are caused 

by illnesses that are easily preventable 

and treatable with simple and low 

cost technologies we already have 

with us. Then I suddenly realised the 

gap – we have left out of all the 

discussions and conferences a very 

critical and important stakeholders - 

the parents and caregivers of our 

children. We professionals discuss and 

deliberate amongst ourselves on how 

to reduce these deaths without 

carrying along the parents who have 

to implement all the child survival 

strategies. It is this quest to address 

the gap and engage with these very 

important stakeholders that led me 

into the world of Paediatrics 

non-profit. 

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation 

started as a Facebook group on the 

20th July 2015 and we just celebrated 

our 5th Anniversary this month. It 

was just a group to engage with 

parents and caregivers of children; 

offering free health education and 

information to parents. The goal is to 

promote child health intelligence. We 

believe that though it is just one 

mother or child at a time who 

through knowledge will not add to 

the horrible statistics, it is something. 

It may not be a big difference in the 

national data; but for that mother; it 

is 100% save! The response was 

astonishing and the group grew 

dramatically. Many parents began to 

give feedback on how they are taking 

better of their children and 

correcting errors they made earlier 

with previous children. Many are 

encouraged and were doing exclusive 

breastfeeding. In other words; they


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www.sme360.ng 

are now engaging with the child 

survival strategies and dropping all 

the wrong belief and myths including 

delayed presentation in hospitals 

which are the contributing factors to 

child deaths. 

By our first anniversary in 2016; we 

realised that not all mothers and 

parents have mobile phones or 

internet access. This birthed the need 

to reach the offline communities and 

we launched our medical outreaches 

targeted primarily to indigent 

communities who will not necessarily 

have access to Paediatricians and 

specialists. We did our first outreach 

in Makoko in 2016 and reached over 

1000 children with more than 200 

volunteers of medical and 

nom-medical professionals; most of 

whom came to ATP Facebook group 

as beneficiaries. We continued to 

grow dramatically on Facebook and 

did another outreach to Ijegun in May 

2017. Then it became obvious we 

need to be formal group and we 

became registered as incorporated 

trustees July 2017. 

Ask The Paediatricians Foundation 

extended her reach outside Lagos to 

Mancha in Kwara State in January 

2018. We renovated a block of 2 

classrooms and did medical outreach 

at LGEA Primary School. ATP became 

international with our selection as 

one of the 115 communities from 46 

countries to be part of the Facebook 

Community Leadership Programme in 

September 2018! This came with a 

grant award of $50,000 for our 

community projects. With this 

funding, we started our nationwide 

outreaches. ATP State Chapters were 

formed and we currently have 40 

State and zonal chapters in Nigeria. In 

May/June 2019; 1450 ATP volunteers 

reached nearly 18,000 children in 33 

States of Nigeria. We also reached over 

22,000 Nigerian students in 77 schools 

nationwide in October 2019 with ATP 

goes to schools community 

outreaches. 

ATP is reaching thousands of families 

daily through our online platforms 

that have expanded to include the 

ATP mobile app and ATP Clinics 

(Telemediciane); and offline 

community outreaches. We are 

recipient of many awards including 

our most recent Social Media for 

Social Goods Africa 20020 (Health) 

category. We are indeed looking 

forward to that day when “no child 

will die from preventable cause of 

deaths in Nigeria and globally” 

I will conclude with my top 7 tips for 

those interested in running a health 

non-profit in Nigeria: 

1. Vision: You need to start with a 

vision of what you need to achieve! 

Have a mission statement and remind 

yourself of what you are trying to 

achieve all the time. 

2. Be Focused and accountable: keep 

to what you plan to achieve and 

avoid distractions. Seek first to fulfil 

the mission and recognition will 

follow. 

3. Passion: Be very passionate about 

what you do as this is what will keep 

you going when you are discouraged 

along the lonely journey of running a 

non-profit. 

4. Convert your beneficiaries to 

volunteers: ATP runs on volunteers 

and has no salaried staff. Most of our 

volunteers were once beneficiaries 

who are also now giving back to 

others. This keeps your overhead cost 

low. 

5. Learn always: as an accidental 

non-profit founder, I learn a lot about 

from courses on Acumen, 

Philanthropy University on social 

entrepreneurship, fundraising ect. 

Learn and apply your knowledge! 

6. Be innovative: Don’t have just one 

idea. Be willing and ready to try new 

things and ideas all the time. 

7. Have a team: Don’t try to do it all 

alone. Having a team who are loyal 

and committed to the vision is key to 

successfully running a non-profit.


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www.sme360.ng 

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected a lot of businesses; while 

some have completely shut down, some are experiencing a dramatic drop in 

revenue. Amidst all these, adjustments need to be made by business owners 

and those thinking of starting their businesses. 

UNIQUE 

BUSINESS IDEAS 

TO EXPLORE 

POST-COVID 19 

ALARA CHARIS 

Below is a list of unique business ideas 

to explore post-COVID-19: 

1. Delivery Business 

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 

pandemic, delivery businesses have 

experienced a boom. A vast majority 

have taken to online shopping to have 

their basic needs met. While the 

epidemic might have caused a 

growth in this business, it will remain 

that way even after the pandemic. 

2. Freelancing 

There are platforms online that 

encourage freelancing by connecting 

buyers with sellers. Some of these 

platforms are Fiverr, Freelancer, 

Upwork, amongst several others. 

Freelancing allows you to work from 

the comfort of your home and earn a 

decent living. 

3. Food Delivery 

The pandemic has led to the 

shutdown of several restaurants, and 

for those that are functional, only 

take-outs are allowed. The market 

place also gets crowded at a time like 

this as people want to stock up 

foodstuff. Not everyone has the luxury 

of going to the market to shop for 

food ingredients. This gives an 

opportunity for a food delivery service 

to thrive. All you have to do is take 

clients’ orders, and make whatever 

food they desire then deliver to their 

doorstep. Adding a food delivery app 

to this will make it easier for your 

prospective customers to place food 

orders online and have it delivered to 

them effortlessly 

4. Online Healthcare Consultation 

Licensed healthcare workers can take 

care of their patients without having to 

step out. They do this by using online 

tools to provide health services to 

patients in need of them, you as a 

healthcare personnel can start up your 

online healthcare consultancy 

services. 

By creating a branded app for your 

services, you will be able to provide the 

best solutions to the health issues of all 

and sundry. 

5. Apps Development 

Working from home will require loads 

of online apps to make it a success. 

Apps development is an opportunity 

for developers to come up with 

applications that make delivery of 

professional services easy for brands 

and businesses. 

6. Telecommunication 

With more users taking to online 

platforms to promote their brands, 

businesses or merely having fun, more 

data and credits will be exhausted. You 

can register with VTU companies and 

provide a platform for people to 

recharge, purchase data, and carry 

out all necessary subscriptions. 

7. E-commerce 

For those engaged in wholesales and 

retail services, it is time to move to 

e-commerce. If the cost of a website is 

more than you can bear, you can 

market your products on social media 

like Facebook and Instagram. 

8. Web Design 

Businesses adopting e-commerce 

means there will be a need for 

website developments. If you can 

design websites, then this is a 

business idea to explore. Design 

websites for businesses and 

organizations and get paid in the 

process. 

9. Online Fitness Coaching 

People want to maintain a healthy 

lifestyle, and what better way to do so 

than healthy eating and exercise? For 

those who have a passion or fitness, 

you can take to online platforms to 

coach people. 

10. Affiliate Marketing 

With this, all you have to do is 

advertise products on your website, or 

any platform and get people to buy 

using your link. The more sales you 

command, the more money you 

make.


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11. Social Media Management 

Companies and businesses pay 

people to manage their presence 

across social media platforms. 

Managing social media accounts is a 

great business idea if you know how 

to promote brands and market 

contents. 

12. Online Tutoring 

If you have a knack for teaching and 

imparting knowledge, this is an 

avenue to make money. All it takes is 

for you to choose a subject area you 

are good at and start getting paid to 

share such knowledge. 

13. Creating E-books 

If you love to write and don’t mind 

handling your promotion, creating an 

E-book to share your knowledge is a 

cool business idea to explore. 

14. Event Planning 

A lot of events have been either 

placed on hold or cancelled as a result 

of the pandemic. Once it is over, there 

will be a boom in event planning as 

parties will resume full time. 

15. Liquid Soap Production 

Soap making business has gained 

popularity over the years. Learning 

how to make liquid soaps for 

household needs is a sure way to send 

you smiling to the bank. 

16. Mini Importation 

The importation business has been on 

hold as a result of the pandemic. The 

moment it’s all over, the demand for 

certain goods will be on the rise again. 

Items for importation include 

fashion-related items, cosmetics, 

amongst others. 

17. Fashion Design 

For those who have skills in fashion 

designing, now might be the time to 

take it a step further and make money 

with your skills. 

18. Thrift Store 

The pandemic has affected a lot of 

things in the economy, including 

people’s finances. Starting a thrift store 

where people can shop for a cheap 

amount without breaking the bank is a 

great business idea. 

19. Driving for Uber/Taxify 

If you have a car and lots of spare time, 

registering as a driver for Bolt (Taxify) 

or Uber is a great business idea to 

explore post-COVID-19. Not only do 

you have full control of your time, but 

you also make money while doing so. 

20. Baking 

Hardly will you see parties, weddings, 

and some other events without cakes 

and snacks. Once the lockdown is 

over, so many postponed activities 

will take place. With this turn of 

events, it is a great business idea to 

dust those pans and begin baking.


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Setting up a clinical practice in Nigeria is not for 

the faint-hearted. It was impossible to get funding 

to start the business because apparently, Nigerian 

banks don’t fund “start-up businesses” and many 

did not understand the healthcare sector. 

MEDICAL 

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

IN NIGERIA… MY PERSPECTIVE 

DR MONISOLA ADANIJO 

In 2013, I began my journey into 

entrepreneurship with excitement in 

my mind and hope in my spirit. I 

wanted to save the world by 

preventing early deaths from heart 

disease. I knew nothing about the 

“HOW” of running a business, even 

though my “WHY” was very 

compelling. We raised funds from 

personal savings, friends, and family 

to kick off the business. After getting 

the required certifications and 

licenses from the relevant regulatory 

bodies, we opened the clinic with 

pomp and pageantry. 

Nigerians don’t have good 

health-seeking behaviour; our idea of 

disease prevention was “it is not my 

portion”. Medical check-up was not a 

term that was “socially acceptable”. It 

was almost taboo to suggest going to a 

medical facility when one is not 

seriously ill, just to check on their 

health status. There was also a general 

mistrust of doctors because it believed 

that “when you go for a check-up, they 

will always find something”. Many 

Nigerians still feel healthcare should 

be free or cost next to nothing. They do 

not see a clinic as a business that 

ought to make profit, and as such, they 

do not see the need to pay a premium 

for healthcare services. We had to start 

an intense campaign to raise 

preventive health awareness. 

I had thought my medical skills were 

enough to run a healthcare business. It 

can’t be that hard; after all, I am of 

above-average intelligence. I realized 

medical entrepreneurs were equally 

‘Entrepreneurs’. I had to learn things I 

had never thought I would need such 

as accounting, taxation, contract law, 

sales, marketing, and customer 

service amongst others. 

Like other sectors, getting quality 

non-medical staff was a significant 

challenge as most of our graduates 

are not equipped for real work in the 

real world. I learnt quickly to place 

less emphasis on the curriculum vitae 

and degrees, but rely more on 

necessary job skills. 

Medical staff (doctors and nurses) are 

leaving the country in droves and 

retaining them is almost impossible 

as they would understandably rather 

relocate to environments where 

enumeration and working conditions 

are much better.


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Lack of constant power supply is also 

a major issue as not only do our 

diagnostic equipment run on 

electricity; they have to be operated in 

a cool environment. Our test kits and 

reagents have to be refrigerated at a 

particular temperature to ensure 

accuracy of results. We currently have 

two generators, and an inverter to 

provide adequate power supply. This 

means that a good portion of our 

service costs is from diesel and 

generator maintenance and repair 

costs. Even when we don’t have 

clients in the facility, we cannot afford 

a power outage. 

The importation, manufacturing, and 

supply of medicines, medical 

supplies, and investigation kits are 

generally poorly regulated, with little 

or no attention paid to quality control 

and supply chain management. We 

have had to ensure a careful selection 

of vendors and suppliers to ensure we 

always get quality supplies. Vendors 

that place a premium on quality 

medical supplies are scarce. 

Environmental factors also posed a 

dire challenge; during the first year, 

our facility was flooded. We suffered 

damage to equipment and furniture, 

which had to be replaced or repaired. 

To prevent this from recurring, we had 

to redesign the building entry points 

and personally hire people to clear 

the gutters of silt and debris at least 

twice a year, even though they are 

public drains and the government 

should do this, because we pay our 

tax! 

“Regulatory agencies” show up 

constantly with bills of “levies and 

dues owed”. Some are legitimate, but 

the vast majority are spurious and 

unnecessary and don’t even get into 

the government pockets. As an 

entrepreneur in Nigeria, you must be 

up-to-date about all the agencies 

regulating your operations as well as 

State and Federal tax laws and 

applicable levies to avoid falling prey 

to fraudsters. It is crucial to have the 

following people on speed dial: a 

lawyer, a tax consultant, a friend in the 

state ministry of health, an 

accountant, as well as a friend in your 

local government office. These people 

are your “go-to” when faced with a 

demand notice for a levy you have 

never heard of. 

Mentors are also vital in the 

entrepreneurship journey. They have 

walked the path and have invaluable 

experience. They help provide clarity 

and help navigate the bottlenecks of 

being a business owner in Nigeria. 

Business mentors are people who are 

experienced in the business. They don’t 

necessarily have to be in the 

healthcare industry. They have a track 

record in running successful and 

profitable companies, their input will 

help to ensure sustainability and 

profitability. Financial mentors help to 

keep an eye on the money and cash 

flow. They are great with projections 

and financial modelling. 

Despite all the issues, 

entrepreneurship in Nigeria can be 

extremely rewarding and fulfilling if 

you keep your “WHY” in focus. It is 

equally important to prioritize your 

personal development and continuous 

growth. Work hard, surround yourself 

with great advisors, arm yourself with 

industry regulations and keep your 

finger on the pulse of your customers.


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LIFE AS A NIGERIAN OBSTETRICIAN 

AND GYNECOLOGIST 

ABOSEDE LEWU 

am an Obstetrician and 

Gynecologist, and I specialise in 

pregnancy, childbirth and 

reproductive health of women. 

Nigeria has the second highest rate of 

maternal health mortality; I consider 

my practice in Nigeria as a call to 

serve. 

Nigeria is a dynamic country with 

hundreds of tribes and ethnic groups; 

each has its own cultural norms and 

social practice. Also, we contend with 

strong and deeply rooted religious 

beliefs that sometimes make our 

work difficult. I always smile when I 

am asked why I am still practising in 

Nigeria. 

My mother almost died giving birth 

when I was a young girl; she was 

saved by doctors and nurses that 

chose to stay despite all the better 

opportunities outside the country. This 

singular event shaped my ambition to 

pay it forward to families around me 

because I believe they gave me my 

mother back. Nonetheless, I am aware 

I maybe wanted in other climes, but I 

am needed here more than ever. 

It is common knowledge that Nigeria 

does not have enough specialist 

doctors and nurses to cater to the 

people; this is equally evident in my 

practice as an obstetrician and 

gynaecologist. The challenges faced 

are the persistent use of alternative 

medications and interventions by 

citizens. I get really frustrated when I 

see women take unnecessary risk with 

their lives. I have witnessed situations 

where women that have cancers stop 

taking their drugs and focus on herbs 

or faith-based intervention till the 

cancer spreads to every part of their 

body. Some pregnant women have 

had two or more cesarean sections 

attempt vaginal delivery in traditional 

homes with dire consequences. 

Another challenge is the lack of 

access to reproductive health services 

by young people. Too many young 

girls suffer life threatening conditions 

from unintended pregnancies, unsafe 

and complicated abortions and 

various sexually transmitted 

infections. Aside from the citizens' 

attitude, we still have to contend with 

insufficient funds. Most Nigerians are 

uninsured, leaving families without a 

pocket payment for healthcare 

services; this means that most people 

only receive healthcare that is 

commensurate to what they can 

afford. 

Imagine catering for uninsured


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patients, then they come to you with 

no money and need interventions 

that will likely cost millions of naira; 

even with the waivers, they may still 

be unable to meet their needs. I have 

lost count of the number of times I 

have taken money out of my pocket to 

pay for food, medication or even 

donate blood for indigent patients. 

This makes the work really tedious 

and heartbreaking at times. 

This has also led me to see beyond the 

clinical practice. I knew there was a 

need for not just hospital-based 

intervention to stem these challenges. 

I founded Girlsaide Initiative, a 

non-governmental organisation to 

empower and support girls, women 

and also address some of the 

problems identified. Through this 

organisation, we have reached 

thousands of girls and women with 

interventions meant to improve their 

lives. We are currently implementing 

the Keep All Mother Alive project 

which has reached over 20,000 

pregnant women since inception and 

is presently distributing interventions 

to prevent three leading causes of 

maternal deaths and prevent 

COVID19 transmission to pregnant 

women and babies. 

There are rewarding parts about 

practising in Nigeria; each life I safely 

birth through either cesarean section 

or vaginal birth is a fulfilling 

experience, especially with mother 

and child going home alive. For 

gynaecological practice, whatever I do 

to alleviate complaints or to improve 

the quality of life of women gives me 

joy and a sense of purpose. 

Nigeria also has a vibrant network of 

senior specialist Obstetricians and 

Gynaecologists who provide 

mentorship and training to us,the 

younger generation of specialists. 

Whenever I look at the healthcare 

system in Nigeria as a practitioner, I 

am perplexed. The government has to 

step up and commit more funds to the 

sector in the area of infrastructural 

development and manpower 

retention. If you live in a major city, you 

may assume things are not so bad, but 

when you travel to suburbs or rural 

communities, then you will realise the 

uphill task being faced. 

Practising, as an obstetrician and 

gynaecologist also constantly reminds 

me of the fact that women's health is 

still not taking the center stage it 

deserves. For example, cervical cancer; 

this is a preventable disease through 

vaccination and regular screening. 

Why has this not been incorporated 

into our immunisation program? We 

don't have an ongoing nationwide 

cervical cancer screening exercise. This 

is a disease that kills women in their 

prime and throws their families into 

chaos, yet we are not talking about it. 

We need to do better to prevent these 

avoidable deaths. Whenever the 

challenges of practising in Nigeria feels 

overwhelming, I remind myself that 

the grass is greener on the other side 

(other countries) because someone 

watered it and remind myself to do my 

part in watering the grass in Nigeria.


www.sme360.ng 

ADETUYI 



SME360 had a chat with Pharm 

Adedipo Adetuyi who is a pharmacist 

and entrepreneur, on the business of 

healthcare in Nigeria.


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1. Introduce yourself to us, this 

includes your educational 

background, family life and things 

you do outside your business and 

also when you started the 

business? 

My name is Pharm Adedipo Adetuyi, 

and I am a pharmacist. I studied 

pharmacy at Olabisi Onabanjo 

University in 2007 afterwards; I went 

for youth service and an internship. I 

also studied for my Masters at the 

University of ESSEX in International 

Marketing and Entrepreneurship and 

returned to Nigeria in late 2010. I 

founded my business in 2011 as soon 

as I completed my masters which 

was about 18 months. Regarding 

family life, I have been married for 

about seven years now; I have a child 

and one sibling. Outside work, I am 

an average sportsman, so I try to play 

sports such as football, table tennis 

and video games. I am a very social 

guy who likes hanging out, basically 

doing physical activities as much as I 

can. 

2. What led you to starting a 

business in Nigeria and did you 

work with anyone before starting 

or did you just decide after your 

master's degree to delve into 

starting your own pharmaceutical 

company and what led you to make 

that decision? 

All my life, I have been an 

entrepreneur since secondary school, 

I have always been doing one 

business or the other. While in 

University, I was involved in selling 

TVs, t-shirts, laptops, electronics etc. I 

have always had a passion for 

entrepreneurship and have always 

known that I wanted to be an 

entrepreneur. After my BSC Pharm at 

Olabisi Onabanjo University, I had to 

do a compulsory internship. As a 

pharmacy graduate, you have to do a 

one-year mandatory internship after 

school. I did mine at a pharmacy in 

Lagos. Working at the retail 

pharmacy store actually ignited my 

passion for health care. After my 

master's degree, I never worked for 

anybody, so that was the only 

working experience I ever had. It was 

a one-year working experience at a 

retail pharmacy store at Ikeja. Once I 

completed my master's degree, I 

started my retail pharmacy shop, 

which was in operation for a few 

At Oakleaf pharmaceuticals where we work, I 

see everybody as a partner. Your team members 

and employees are your partners in progress. 

years. Afterwards, I decided to shut it 

down and focus on what I currently 

do, which is importation and 

distribution of vitamins and 

supplements. That has been the 

journey so far. 

3. You mentioned running the retail 

store for some years, what informed 

the decision to shut it down, was it 

because you saw a better 

opportunity in doing importation 

and distribution of vitamin products 

or the retail pharmacy store was not 

doing well, what exactly happened? 

1. One of the first lessons I learnt in 

business was to consider the 

environment you are in. The retail 

pharmacy shop was situated at 

Agege. But opening a shop in Agege 

with the desire to set a certain level of 

standards and quality that would 

have attracted extra cost was not 

palatable for the people I was serving 

at that time. There was a 

disconnection between the service 

and the people that would see value 

in it. That was one of the major issues; 

there wasn't a connection. 

2. I like novelty. I like things moving 

fast. As a result of my kind of person, 

after a while, the store weighed me


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down. In my opinion, there wasn't 

room for me to innovate as much as I 

wanted to. Being one of my first 

businesses, finance was a bit tight at 

the time. Several other factors, such 

as putting systems in place also 

contributed to it. Considering that it's 

my first business, it was operated 

with a naïve mindset. If I run that 

business with the knowledge I have 

now, I would have done it in an 

entirely different way. Aside from the 

retail store, there was also an 

importation arm of the business, and 

it was doing better. I realised that the 

importation seemed to be yielding 

better returns. Instead of holding on 

to the two, l decided to let go of one 

and focus. However, I have the 

intention of going back to retail 

because that was where I fell in love 

with healthcare and 

pharmaceuticals. This time I will be 

doing it the way I want and not 

restrained by any of the initial 

problems. 

4. As a follow up to that question, 

when people study pharmacy, 

there is this expectation of later on 

owning a pharmacy. Is there any 

course that prepares them to be 

entrepreneurs or is it just them 

being left to open a retail store 

without any formal trainng asides 

the one-year internship that you 

do? 

While we were in school, there was 

no formal course, and to the best of 

my knowledge there is still none, but 

a lot of people are clamouring for 

them to infuse entrepreneurship into 

the program. While I was in my final 

year, I had no intentions of being a 

pharmacist. The course jaded me 

that the plan was just to keep on 

cramming formulas. I intended to do 

my Masters program and delve into 

marketing consulting. Securing a job 

in the UK was sort of difficult at that 

time, and the type of roles I was given 

at the time wasn't the type of job that 

I saw myself doing. I thought to 

myself; I have a pharmacy degree and 

a passion for marketing. To an extent, 

there is a large part of pharmacy that 

has to do with marketing. I married 

those two things together and 

decided that I would go into 

pharmaceutical marketing. I still get 

to do marketing and 

entrepreneurship, which I love, 

coupled with my pharmacy degree. 

The marriage of these three things led 

me down the path of the health 

sector. 

5. When did you now choose to go 

into neutraceutical and vitamin C 

supplements as against other 

products, what did you see, was 

there any kind of special 

opportunity or what exactly led you 

to wanting to do vitamin 

supplements and neutraceuticals? 

After I completed my master's 

program, I returned to Nigeria and 

started retail pharmacy. One fateful 

day, I was with a friend of mine who 

was in the same master's program 

with me. He is Jordanian, and he 

spoke to me about the opportunities 

in selling eye drops and optical 

products, then I had started 

considering importation. Anyways, I 

went to Jordan and met up with a 

company because they wanted to do 

business with us. On the day I was set 

to leave, my host just brought out this 

product and said aside from the 

product that we had already talked 

about, this is another one you can do 

by the side. The moment I saw the 

product, held it in my hand and I saw 

a vision of what it could be, from that 

moment on we have never looked 

back. I eventually didn't go into the 

optical products. Maybe it was 

introduced to that product by divine 

providence, and it is one of the brands 

that we sell today. The story has been 

such an exciting adventure from then 

till now. 

We started with vitamin supplements 

by chance, but along the line, it began 

to seem like that would be the future. 

Because the niche began to grow at 

an astronomical rate, a lot of people 

are now taking care of their health 

from a more preventive point of view. 

People are seeking ways to prevent 

diseases instead of having to cure or 

treat them in the long run. Consumers 

are beginning to venture into fitness, 

healthcare and dieting; these things 

have really increased in the last few 

years. It just shows that is the 

direction people are going. It has also 

strengthened our will and resolve to 

follow through in that direction 

because we feel that the market can 

only get bigger and better in that 

niche. 

6. One of the challenges with 

running a business anywhere in the 

world is having the right team to 

work with. Of course, no one can do 

it alone, so you need a few hands to 

help you build your business. How 

were you able to build a formidable 

team and what are the challenges 

in identifying the right hands. This 

is very critical to any business, and I 

would really want you to go deep 

into it by telling us how you were 

able to get good hands and then 

inform them into a team that is now 

winning? 

1. For any entrepreneur building a 

team, you must know exactly what 

the team is supposed to do. When I 

first started, I was the only person 

doing everything. For almost two 

years, I was the accountant, HR, 

marketer, tax collector; I was 

everything in the business. Now that 

we have a bigger team, I understand 

each aspect of my business, and I 

know what each person is supposed 

to do because I Have done it before. It 

was all about my ability to delay 

gratification. I am going to put my 

foot on the ground and go through 

this process and not be weary about 

it than to just say, you want to hire 20 

people on the first day of your 

business, you don't even know what 

they are expected to do. 

2. One critical factor I think is missing 

in this part of the world is that most 

employers don't see their team 

members or staff as partners. At 

Oakleaf pharmaceuticals where we 

work, I see everybody as a partner. 

Your team members and employees 

are your partners in progress. The 

second thing is that you must 

constantly share the vision to build a 

formidable team. What is the vision 

for your organisation? Do you know 

it? Do your team members know it? 

Are they following through? Do they 

see themselves getting better 

following that vision than they would, 

not following the vision? Are they all 

aligned towards the same goals, 

vision, tasks, objectives? 

3. This may sound a bit controversial, 

mixing love with business. What does 

love have to do with business? As for 

me, I love what I do, so people 

working with me also share it. They 

have also been infected with it. So 

you choose people that have a 

passion for what they do. You must


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also love your people, love your 

people in the sense of caring about 

them, and carry them along in the 

decision-making process. Everyone 

has value to offer unless you have a 

problem with the recruitment 

process. You need to be able to make 

people see the potential in 

themselves. You need to love people 

enough to get the best out of them. I 

have someone who is still here from 

the first set of staff 9 years ago. We 

have a low staff turnover. We have 

people that have been with us for 6, 4 

to 3 years although we've been in 

business for just 9 years. 

4. Last but not least, ensure you are 

developing the capacity of the 

people. Covid-19 has disrupted the 

traditional ways of doing business, 

thereby forcing people to change by 

employing technology and others. In 

our organisation, everybody has had 

to develop themselves on the use of 

technology because we are deploying 

a lot of technological assets or tools to 

help us do our work better. From the 

way we talk to our doctors, to how we 

relate with our pharmacists and how 

we even distribute. People that will 

build a good team with you must be 

willing to learn, increase their 

capacity, and when you show them 

love, they repay you in a thousand 

folds. That emotional deposit is 

crucial. We have meetings and listen 

to everybody's opinion because 

everyone has something to add. This 

way, everyone has a say in how the 

organisation is run. 

7. What are the challenges you face 

running a healthcare business in 

Nigeria, particularly with the fact 

that there are so many things that 

are not in place, things that other 

countries take for granted we still 

struggle with them in this part of 

the world so can you help us break 

it down. What are the challenges 

you have faced and if possible, how 

have you been able to surmount 

these challenges? 

The challenges I've faced running this 

business have come in phases. As I 

told you earlier, the only place I 

worked was my one-year internship, 

so I had just a one-year working 

experience and everything else I have 

done by myself. One of the


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challenges I had initially is putting 

systems in place because I didn't 

have a lot of experience working in an 

organised place. That was the major 

challenge for me at the beginning; I 

didn't understand how to put 

accounts in systems or put sales and 

marketing systems in place. What we 

were doing at the beginning of the 

business was sort of groping in the 

dark, and we were lucky that we 

didn't die in that pathfinding period. 

The first phase was a knowledge gap. 

I think this takes me back to your 

question bothering on if pharmacy 

students are trained on 

entrepreneurship. If students are 

taught entrepreneurship on this, it 

will make it easier to transit into 

being an entrepreneur, which would 

have been useful to me. 

Afterwards, we had serious financial 

issues. We had challenges 

overestimating demand for our 

products, pricing the products and 

marketing the wrong way, and not 

understanding the dynamics of the 

market in the ecosystem of the 

pharmaceuticals supply chain of 

Nigeria. When you bring in a product, 

you go to the distributors to deliver 

your products to them and find a way 

to create enough demand on the 

retail end so they can get more 

products from the distributors, 

because that is one channel. There 

are several channels that different 

companies employ. For us, one of the 

challenges was that we did not 

understand the right channel for the 

type of product we are selling. The 

way you market neutraceuticals is 

different from the way you market 

paracetamol and other products. Not 

a lot of people had done what we 

were doing at the time. For a very 

long time, we just had a few 

products, and they were vitamin 

products. I remember going to some 

pharmacy stores and hearing "Is this 

the only product you people have, it's 

only vitamin C you people are 

selling?" There were other issues like 

finances, government policy and 

foreign exchange. The exchange rates 

rising high, dealing with government 

policies, ban of certain items, 

logistics, storage and others. 

Sometimes the business 

environment is not great for young 

entrepreneurs because they are still 

growing. There are a lot of taxes and 

levies; you have to pay LASA fee, LIRS, 

FIRS, Customs, NAFDAC. Sometimes 

you have to pay everything at the 

same time, and it could be 

overwhelming. What has been 

sustaining is that I don't do everything 

at a time. I'm not just looking at 

building, I also look at the big picture, 

but I care about how we will survive 

today. Every day is a new challenge or 

opportunity. If I'm able to survive 

today and the company is alive today, 

tomorrow is a new day. One day at a 

time has been it for us. That is the 

philosophy that I follow. 

8. Entrepreneurs are also leaders, 

what are the leadership skills you 

feel an entrepreneur must have to 

be able to lead a sustainable and 

profitable business successfully. 

What are the tools I need to be able 

to manage the people, the product 

we sell, the public, and to manage 

the image? 

Regarding leadership, I have two 

nuggets: 

1. Leadership is all about you, which 

means it has to do with your vision. 

How do you react or respond to 

circumstances around you.Every 

leader should have a clear vision. Even 

if it is to make money, let it be clear 

that they know they are here to make 

money. 

2. It is not about you. Your leadership 

must be about people. Are you trying 

to create more leaders or are you 

leading just to have people following 

you? A leader should not have 

followers but more leaders if not, he 

has failed. You should have a system 

where leaders are being created along 

the organogram or the rank and file. 

9. There are a lot of pharmaceuticals, 

and some are even doing what you 

are doing. What makes your 

company stand out in terms of how 

you relate with your customers and 

how you sell? 

I think our core values guard the 

template that we use as an 

organisation and I will list them out 

for you 

1. Excellence 

2. Innovation 

3. Integrity 

4. Accountability 

5. People development 

These are our core values and 

everything that we do, whether 

interaction with our customers, they 

must be guided by these values. We 

do everything we can to ensure our 

products stand out. From the 

packaging to the quality of the 

product, we vet all our 

manufacturers. We don't just meet 

any manufacturer and say they 

should produce this product for us. 

Any product my family cannot use I 

don't give anybody. The love for 

people and care for people's lives 

guides us. In a nutshell, our core 

values guide us and to a very large 

extent, differentiate us in the 

marketplace. We try to market 

ourselves in that light as well. 

Integrity is written all over our 

products. We communicate with 

customers via different social media 

channels and through our website. 

We are not hiding from anybody 

because we have nothing to hide. 

When you buy a product from our 

company, you are rest assured that 

you are getting a good product. Over 

the past 9 years, we have had people 

talk about the quality and efficacy of 

our products, what they have done 

and can do. This feedback gives us 

the impetus to say people want 

value, so if you can add value to 

people's lives and their health, they 

will always gravitate towards you and 

your product. This differentiates us 

from others in the market. 

10. What is the greatest challenge 

you faced in the business and how 

were you able to surmount the 

challenge? 

The COVID 19 pandemic has been a 

significant challenge. It has also been 

a blessing, and has helped in 

re-evaluating our business generally. 

It has helped me to do a massive 

overhaul of the business from all 

sides from marketing to putting up 

systems and processes to ensure the 

business thrives. This is a very tough 

time in our organisation. It has been 

an enormous challenge and a major 

significant turning point in our 

business. 

11. The challenge that we have faced 

and how we have surmounted 

them? 

Importation: Our business is 

predicated on importation. We 

import goods then resell them at 

different prices. Generally, the 

importation of goods comes with a


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high financial cost. In recent times, 

importation hasn't been easy 

because of the fluctuating exchange 

rate in dollars. In some cases, where 

we underestimated the cost of 

importation for that particular 

season, we had to reach out to banks 

for financial assistance. We reach out 

to banks to obtain loans from them 

to ensure a smooth operation of 

business. These loans aren't easy or 

convenient to pay back, especially 

with interest. It was one of the 

challenges we faced during this 

pandemic. 

Credit grants to customers: 

To encourage our customers and 

build better relationships with them, 

we had a policy where customers can 

obtain some goods from us based on 

credit grants, and repay at a later 

date. We had a lot of customers that 

obtained goods based on credit. 

However, there was a decline in the 

number of those who responded 

promptly for the repayment of these 

goods. The number of people that 

paid back these goods on time was 

less than those that didn't pay on 

time. This was affecting the growth of 

the business generally both 

financially, productivity-wise and 

everything as a whole. We cancelled 

the policy and we stopped giving 

credit to customers. Debt was 

crippling the business, and this 

needed to be addressed; hence the 

policy was removed. 

12. At the period where you 

changed the credit grants policy, 

did you lose customers or did you 

gain more customers? 

No, we did not lose our main 

customers. Most of them earned our 

trust and continued doing business 

with us. They remained loyal 

customers and kept patronising us. 

13. What advice would you give to 

fresh graduates going into 

pharmaceuticals? 

1. Be committed to excellence: 

Customers are not concerned with 

whether your business is a growing 

business or an already financially 

established business. The primary 

concern is that you deliver excellence 

at all times. With your products and 

services, whatever you are doing, it 

must portray excellence, that is what 

attracts them, and that is what keeps 

them in the long run. Make sure you 

are a person of distinction, and your 

business must also show this. 

2. Don't give up: 

There will be challenging moments, 

times when it seems like nothing is 

working when you must remind 

yourself constantly that you need to 

keep pushing and not give up. You 

would have sleepless nights but don't 

lose hope. Understanding that giving 

up is not an option in your approach 

to business, you need to be dynamic 

and flexible and also know what is 

on-demand in the commercial 

market, and the world at large. It is 

not just about what you intend to do. 

Your business must be flexible enough 

to move with the season as it changes. 

3. Maintain good relationships: 

This is very important because several 

factors may come in and affect your 

relationships, be diplomatic about 

handling disputes. Don't burn bridges, 

try as much as possible to maintain a 

good relationship and if the 

relationship must end, let it be a 

peaceful note. 

4. Keep learning: 

Expand your horizon and read wide. 

E-commerce is the future, keep 

developing yourself intellectually and 

add to your wealth of knowledge. 

Learn new required skills for your 

business. Ensure you are creating your 

desired future and not being a victim 

to the future. 

5. Have a Great Team: 

Having a great team is an important 

factor in every business. No man is an 

island; you need to work with people 

and partner with people for the 

growth and improvement of your 

business. Most importantly, in 

building your team, be a leader with a 

difference. Treat your team members 

as you would want to be treated and 

maintain a good relationship with 

them at all times for the benefit of the 

business. 

6. Mentor 

There is a popular saying that 

experience beats research. This means 

that a person who has experience in a 

particular field or business is always 

one step ahead of anybody who has 

zero experience in that business. 

Those who have experience with 

business always have an added 

advantage over what any research 

could offer you. So, you need to have 

a mentor. This doesn't necessarily 

mean someone you are in close 

contact with. It can be someone that 

you admire based on their biography 

or someone who has experience in a 

particular field or business or career. 

Overall, someone, you count worthy 

enough to be called a mentor. 

7. Comparison: 

Don't compare yourself with 

anybody. Always remember that you 

are unique, you are different, and 

your business is special. You are 

adding value to the commercial 

market, so you can get ideas from 

people but do not feel threatened by 

your competitors. Rather be 

open-minded to people's positive 

opinions and ideas. Keep growing 

yourself but do not compare yourself. 

14. What are your Guiding 

principles in life? 

1. I am a value giver and always aim 

to see people become the best of 

themselves. 

2. I believe in fair treatment. I like 

putting people first. I invest in people 

because I know the results always 

yield lifelong fruit. At the end of the 

day, the good people would always 

stand for you anyway even when you 

are not there presently. 

3. Expand my vision: I have a quote 

that is my guiding light, "As a man 

thinketh in his heart, so is he" the 

second one is." If you think you can, or 

you think you cannot, you are 

probably right. I also believe that "the 

longer you look into the future, the 

better you can plan for today". 

Where do you see your business in 

the next 10 years? 

In the next ten years, our business will 

be recognised as a company that has 

continually consolidated its position 

as a value-driven health care service. 

We hope to have an impact on the 

health and the wellness of the vast 

majority of people. Therefore we will 

diversify into health and fitness 

pharmaceuticals, also anything that 

has to do with health and fitness 

generally.

SERVICES 

MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL 

EQUIPMENT SERVICES 

Floor degreasing 

Power audit and evaluation 

Enhanced cable management 

Electrical power and distribution 

Steam cleaning of engine radiators 

and heat exchangers 

Mechanical cleaning of diesel / generator 

tank and dislodging 

SUPPLY OF ELECTRICAL 

AND MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 

FACILITY MANAGEMENT SERVICES 

PROCUREMENT, INSTALLATION, OPERATION 

AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES 

Gas engines 

Diesel engines 

Heating, Ventilation 

and Air - Conditioning (HVAC) 

Design, Construction and Installation 

of Blast Freezers and Cold Room 

Address: 

Head Office: 

Plot 1b, Block 123, T.K. Kuboye road, 

off Oniru Market, Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria. 

Branch Office: 

80, Bayeiku Road, Opp. Tipper Garage, 

Oga Oloye, Igbogbo, Ikorodu, Lagos Nigeria. 

Contact us today: 

+234 818 890 1842 

+234 811 360 7487 

info@gtsprofessionals.com.ng 

gtsprofessionals@gmail.com 

www.gtsprofessionals.com.ng 

@gtsprofessionals 

PARTNERS


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www.sme360.ng 

HEALTHCARE OPPORTUNITIES 

AMID #COVID 19 

SAMUEL MOORE 

The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling 

businesses in all sectors of the 

economy, including healthcare. 

Health systems are going through 

unprecedented challenges presently. 

For example, many hospitals have 

eliminated elective surgeries 

temporarily. These surgeries are 

known to drive a lot of revenue. 

Entrepreneurs can still look beyond 

these challenges to find new 

healthcare opportunities. It is about 

harnessing the emerging trends to 

salvage lost revenues and maintain 

financial solvency. 

Healthcare Opportunities To 

Consider 

According to Greg Feirn (CEO of 

LCMC Health), his hospital was at the 

peak of treating patients suffering 

from coronavirus in April 2020. This 

means that they suffered severe 

financial distress as they couldn’t 

carry out many other activities that 

increased their revenue. The 

implication of this was looking 

beyond the challenge to find 

opportunities to increase liquidity. 

Opportunity 1 – Virtual Care 

This aspect of healthcare has become 

more popular because of COVID-19. 

According to Klasko, digital 

innovations in the health sector will 

continue to be on the rise even after 

the pandemic. He buttressed his 

point by pointing out the geometric 

increase of visitors to Telehealth’s app 

from 100 to 2,500 daily. 

It is no secret that our world is going 

digital, and new apps are being 

created daily. The onus is on you as a 

healthcare entrepreneur to find 

problems you can solve through 

virtual care. 

Hitherto, the major problem that 

slowed the growth of telemedicine is 

low reimbursement rates. The 

number of people seeking this option 

today has voided this challenge, and 

you can now invest without fear. 

Opportunity 2 – Liquidity Planning 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a 

significant impact on markets in 

different parts of the world. This has 

resulted in healthcare businesses 

re-examining their current debt 

portfolios. It is imperative that during 

pandemics such as this, business 

executives need to steer their 

businesses through the turbulence. 

They must also account for shortfalls 

and downstream effects. Liquidity 

planning means ensuring that a 

company maintains a solvent position 

at all times in the nearest future 

(Credit Suisse, 2020). It is one of the 

most important instruments in 

financial planning. Many 

organizations, including healthcare 

companies, had to furlough their staff 

over the last few months to maintain 

liquidity and ensure the smooth 

running of operations. You can tap 

into this opportunity by offering 

liquidity planning services. This means 

that you will offer businesses in the 

healthcare sector to ride out the 

volatility. You don’t have to be in the 

healthcare sector to engage this 

opportunity. All you need to do is 

understand this financial tool and 

publicize your services. 

Opportunity 3 – Mergers and 

Partnerships 

A merger is the union of two already 

existing companies based on 

agreement. This is one of the best 

ways for businesses to grow or expand. 

It involves pooling risks together to 

achieve a common business aim. 

Mergers result in strategic 

relationships in which some equity is 

exchanged or sold. It is one of the 

unplanned consequences of a crisis 

like the present pandemic. Many 

companies are failing financially and 

shutting down. As a result, healthcare 

businesses with strong capital bases 

can help smaller ones at risk of 

closure. Both smaller and bigger 

healthcare companies can benefit. If 

yours is a smaller company, you can 

approach a bigger company to share 

equity, therefore stay in operation. 

For the bigger companies, this is an 

opportunity to extend their stakes. 

A partnership is a little different from 

mergers. A partnership as an 

agreement between two or more 

parties to operate a business. This is 

aimed at sharing risks and profits. 

What better period to strike this sort 

of strategic relationship than now? 

Examples of partnerships include a 

partnership between healthcare 

centres and IT firms. This type of 

partnership can lead to a 

telemedicine business. It creates a 

viable path for smaller clinics to 

retain their patient populations while 

IT companies can spread their 

tentacles into the health sector. 

Opportunity 4 – Supply Chain and 

Infrastructure Investments 

There is no doubt that the pandemic 

will have a long-lasting effect on 

businesses. Healthcare businesses 

need to invest in building stronger 

supply chains and better 

infrastructure. Some of the 

infrastructures include cybersecurity, 

information technology, and 

ambulatory services. 

This means that other businesses 

outside healthcare can extend their 

tentacles into this sector. We need 

businesses that will help to get 

medical supplies to the people. This 

fixes the inefficiencies and breaches 

that may exist in the supply chain. 

Both supply chain and infrastructure 

investments will help in changing the 

face of the healthcare sector.


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OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES 

IN STARTING A PHARMACEUTICAL 

BUSINESS IN NIGERIA 

LINDA EGBUNA 

The Nigerian pharmaceutical industry 

is one of the fast-emerging industries 

in Africa with potentials for further 

tremendous growth. This is largely 

because healthcare spending in 

Nigeria is often a private affair, 

out-of-pocket spending accounted 

for 70% of total health expenditure in 

2016, compared with just 7% in South 

Africa. Several major pharmaceutical 

companies have already made their 

way into the Nigerian pharmaceutical 

market, and Goldstein Market 

Intelligence analyst forecast the 

Nigeria pharmaceuticals market size 

is set to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% over 

the forecast years of 2017-2030. 

Currently, the Pharmaceutical Society 

of Nigeria (PSN), is the major 

umbrella body that regulates the 

activities of registered pharmacists in 

Nigeria and notable key players here 

include: Sun Pharma, Cipla, Candila. 

Glenmark, Abbott Nigeria, Biocon, 

Sanofi Nigeria, Elys, and Pfizer. 

Investment in the Nigerian 

pharmaceutical industry has a high 

potential of succeeding faster than 

others. Also the industry is expected 

to play a significant role in 

transforming Nigeria into a 

multi-million dollar economy. 

At first glance, it’s tempting to assume 

that there are no opportunities for 

new entrepreneurs in the Nigerian 

pharmaceutical industry. Because it 

seems the industry has been filled 

with big names, however, this 

assumption ignores how complex and 

dynamic this industry is. Every step of 

the pharmaceutical process offers a 

myriad of opportunities for budding 

entrepreneurs to take the leap and 

come on board; the only catch is that 

you have got to know where to look. 

Drug Marketing 

One of such business opportunities in 

the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry 

is the area of marketing drugs and 

medications. Opening a medicines 

sales or-manufacturing company is 

incredibly lucrative. The sales aspect is 

poised to succeed because Nigerians 

buy drugs frequently. If you choose 

manufacturing, the development of 

these medicines requires different 

facilities and equipment; not many 

people can afford them in the 

beginning. You could also outsource 

the actual manufacturing of the 

medicines to 

medicines-manufacturing 

companies. When you start 

generating revenue, then start 

investing the money in your own 

company by hiring trained 

professionals to manufacture within 

your facility. 

Drug Distribution 

Distributorship of drugs is also an 

opportunity to step into the Nigerian 

pharmaceutical sector. As a 

distributor, you can streamline your 

customer base to cater for one or two 

successful businesses and earn your 

income by selling and distributing 

medicines manufactured by 

pharmaceutical companies to these 

businesses whether privately owned 

hospitals or drug supermarkets. You 

could also connect with just one 

medicine manufacturing company as 

an independent marketer so that 

your credibility as a distributor will 

precede you when connected with 

new customers or companies. 

Mobile Pharmacy 

A mobile pharmacy is a pharmacy 

service that delivers drugs to people 

to their doorstep like any other 

deliverable service, and it is a 

relatively new concept in the 

pharmaceutical industry. Another 

option is alternative medicine, where 

you start a pharmacy that sells and 

supplies only herbal drugs. You can 

set up an online pharmacy after 

completing the requirements as 

stipulated by the Pharmacists 

Council of Nigeria Act. This is a 

lucrative business opportunity 

because it cuts downs the additional 

cost of rent and such to the barest 

minimum. 

Challenges 

Despite the avalanche of 

opportunities for new entries into the


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Nigerian health industry, this sector 

currently operates under a highly 

challenging business environment. 

For instance, the absence of stable 

electricity supply in the country has 

forced pharmaceutical companies to 

spend huge sums of money on 

alternative sources of power such as 

generators, solar energy sources and 

inverters. Each of these options cost a 

lot of money to maintain, thereby 

increases their costs of production 

and results in them overpricing their 

products to recover their capital 

which in turn drives away their 

customers. 

High costs of imported 

pharmaceutical products, majority of 

raw materials, about 98 percent used 

in the production of drugs in Nigeria 

are imported. There are over 300 drug 

importers nationwide that flood the 

wholesale pharmaceutical market 

with their products. Retailers and 

private operators buy the products 

from the wholesale market to supply 

their customers and the cycle keeps 

going on. 

Government's efforts to limit the rate 

of imports isn't entirely helpful 

because Nigerians have a lot of trust 

in imported drugs than locally 

manufactured ones. Counterfeiting of 

drugs is a major source of concern. 

Despite the efforts of NAFDAC, the 

perpetrators of this illicit business are 

not. 

Managing risks in the drug 

manufacturing process and quality 

systems is crucial, but it is still 

challenging for the pharmaceutical 

companies to identify possible risks 

associated with a product or 

processes involved in manufacturing, 

development, and distribution of 

products. 

Access to low interest funding is 

another major constraint being 

encountered by operators to increase 

and improve capacity of 

pharmaceutical companies to 

operate effectively or to compete 

favourably with their counterparts in 

other parts of the world. 

The Nigerian government has a crucial 

role to play in revitalising our 

pharmaceutical industry if the country 

is to harness the huge untapped 

potentials in this sector fully. The best 

time for this was 20 years ago but the 

next best time is now. The 

government has to intervene to create 

an enabling environment for our 

pharmaceutical industry to thrive and 

contribute its quota in the national 

economy because these challenges 

are by-products of unfavourable 

policies of past governments over the 

years. 

On the part of operators in the 

pharmaceutical industry, they need to 

understand that there is an urgent 

need to change their attitude and 

innovate their business models. It is 

also imperative for operators in our 

pharmaceutical sector to collaborate 

and partner with each other. They 

need to raise funds for research 

initiatives because this is a major area 

in the manufacture of quality 

medicines.


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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A KID NUTRITIONIST 

IN NIGERIA 

Ifeyinwa Omesiete is a certified expert Nutritionist on a mission to save 

Africa’s children from malnourishment and hunger. She practices as 

the Lead Analyst on wellness and is a Paediatric Nutritionist at Carib 

Health Nutrition and Wellness center in Lagos Nigeria.


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www.sme360.ng 

Please introduce yourself to us: 

My name is Mrs Ifeyinwa Omesiete, 

and I am clinically trained and 

practising pediatric Nutritionist. I am 

very passionate about alleviating 

malnutrition in Africa by providing 

children with adequate and local 

meals for their development and 

growth. 

As a young mum of two toddlers, I 

have overcome issues that have 

arisen both developmentally and 

physically with creatively prepared 

healthy meals. My experience and 

educational background birthed the 

first Pediatric Nutrition Challenge in 

Nigeria, a two-week online platform 

that educates caregivers and parents 

on the importance of proper 

nutrition. It also pushes them to use 

effective feeding techniques and 

social skills, introducing a variety of 

local natural foods to children 

between the ages of 6 months-6 

years. 

What does kid nutrition entail? 

I consult at various hospitals in Lagos, 

Nigeria, as well as manage my 

independent practice online. I use 

dietary interventions to provide 

healing for children with varying 

ailments. My professional experience 

ranges from progressive weight 

management to improving the 

symptoms of children with genetic 

disorders. 

Why did you decide to become a kid 

nutritionist? 

I think the profession chose me. I love 

food and the variety that it offers. I 

also love working with children 

because I believe to decrease the 

prevalence of chronic diseases, we 

have to preserve the lives of the next 

generation. If you combine the two, 

Clinical Nutrition was the perfect fit. I 

actually wanted to become a 

Pediatrician (a medical practitioner 

that specializes in children and their 

diseases), but when I discovered the 

real power and healing properties of 

food; my mind was changed. I love 

what I do and wouldn’t trade it for 

anything. 

How is a typical day like for you? 

It is overwhelming on most days. It 

takes a lot of research, practice and 

empathy to do what I do. My simplest 

days revolve around answering 

questions from over 100 mums on 

how they should feed their child to 

continually coming up with new 

recipes. 

Busy days are filled with paperwork, 

meal plan creations and data analysis 

for brands who are developing new 

products to help more children. It is 

busy work, but it's good work, and I 

am grateful for it. 

Please give us an insight as to how 

you effectively manage your team 

The world is moving very fast into the 

online space, and it won’t favour pen 

and paper much longer. As a business 

owner being very seasoned in 

different online tools and systems is 

the most efficient way to do work. 

Sometimes my brain gets tired, but 

because I have set up systems that 

are basically plug and play; even on 

my worst days, my team can manage 

because of automation. 

What is your favourite business 

mantra? 

I learnt this from my parents at a 

young age, and it has stuck with me 

till now. Anything worth doing is 

worth doing well; no matter how 

small or mundane the task is. Always 

give you 100% best! 

What advice would you give 

someone willing to go into your 

field? 

Patience, empathy and creativity. 

Pediatric nutrition is different, and it 

is a niche not many can cope in. 

Passion will not be enough. You must 

have patience to deal with parents as 

they can be overbearing. You must be 

empathetic because most parents 

are coming to you at their breaking 

point. Listening and holding their 

hand on the journey would yield your 

biggest successes. Finally, be creative 

by always thinking outside the box. 

Children are interesting beings and 

to be able to help them through food; 

you must continuously develop new 

and inspiring meals.


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www.sme360.ng 

STARTING A COMPANY 

IN THE HEALTH AND 

FITNESS SPACE 

The rapidly growing health and wellness industry is currently worth $4.2 

trillion. As a result of increasing urbanization, and the wellness mindset that 

has now infiltrated consumer consciousness. Your passionate desire to start 

a company in the health and fitness space is not new but your ability to 

observe, scrutinize, innovate and create will make the difference. 

DR. LYNDA ODOH ANIKWE 

3. Tailor Your Passion To Meet The 

Market's Demand: No matter how 

passionate you are about your idea, if 

there is no target market to generate 

demand it may become an 

unprofitable venture. Before you 

plunge in resources, I strongly advise 

that you do a pre- market survey to 

align the actual needs with the 

perceived needs. In addition to 

finding out the actual need, this is also 

an opportunity for you to identify your 

potential clients preferences when it 

comes to mode of service delivery and 

some other details that make you 

more marketable. This survey can be 

easily conducted with Google form, 

type form and so many other free 

resources out there. 

Here are 10 tips to consider when 

starting a company in the Health and 

fitness space: 

1. Pick A Niche: Health and wellness is 

a very broad sector with business 

subsets which include nutrition, 

fitness coaching, wellness tourism, 

stress management, preventive 

health services, production and sales 

of sports gears, healthy meal service 

delivery, sales of medical equipment, 

patient care logistics and lots more. 

Picking a niche will help you evaluate 

if the resources and qualifications you 

have are sufficient to thrive as a 

market leader in that space. If not, the 

first step would be to acquire the 

necessary qualifications needed to 

offer quality services to your clients. 

2. Identify Your Why: At the start of 

your business, it is strongly advised 

that you pen down your vision for 

reference purposes. This will be 

leveraged on during decision making 

as times evolve and your company 

grows. For instance Mr. A started a gym 

to provide a solution to the rising 

prevalence of obesity in Lagos. As a 

result of the pandemic, gym services 

were disrupted. Because Mr. A had his 

why in view, it was easier to go back to 

the drawing board and brainstorm for 

other innovative ways that could still 

solve the problem of obesity in Lagos. 

Following this, he was able to develop 

new products and services ranging 

from home based instruction services, 

paid podcast/ self help books to paid 

virtual work out subscriptions. 

4. Develop Your Products: Now it's 

time to put your best foot forward. 

First start by identifying the products 

and services you want to offer. This 

could be fresh food boxes with 

cooking booklets, healthy food 

delivery courses, fitness subscription 

plans, healthy cooking classes, meal 

plans and recipes coaching, work out 

plans, weight loss services, preventive 

health apps, self help books or 

whatever products you have curated 

from your drawing board. Have your 

products test run and reviewed by 

people you trust for quality assurance. 

As a startup, quality cannot be 

compromised because you need 

those referrals to push your products. 

Be conscious of the fact that customer 

satisfaction is key. Now, it's time to 

find the right branding for your 

product.


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www.sme360.ng 

5. Branding Is The New Business 

Card: About 70% of the time, the first 

impression a client will get of your 

company would occur in the social 

media space. You just have to make it 

count. While it might cost you some 

bucks to get a graphic designer who 

can help you generate amazing 

content for product marketing and 

visibility, you can get a lot done with 

all the free resources out there. So stir 

up the creative in you. You can design 

your logo, stickers , flyer, product 

packs, mini website, t-shirts, ebooks, 

video animations, product 

presentation slides all from your 

phone. Some resources to help you 

get started include disha.page, Inshot 

and canva. Just get creative and save 

some bucks for the brand. 

6. Keep Track Of The Numbers: From 

the first day of sales, it's important to 

set financial targets and keep account 

at the end of the day. Get a business 

account or keep a separate account 

solely for company payment and 

expenditures. This is also important 

especially if you are nurturing the idea 

of seeking funds for expansion in the 

near future as investors would want to 

reference this. 

7. Always Seek Feedback: Health and 

fitness sector is one in which the value 

of customer satisfaction cannot be 

over emphasized. As you begin to 

make sales, you need to stay 

connected. Make enquiries to know if 

you met their expectations and find 

out what they want to see you do 

differently. Then leverage on this 

feedback to improve your services and 

also advertise your brand. If you 

consistently make it your company 

culture to thrive on feedbacks and 

research based solutions, you will 

definitely leave your mark as a market 

leader in your niche 

8. Be Result Oriented And Quality 

Driven: Every client is a potential 

referral link. Make sure service is 

rendered in remarkable ways. Doing 

things differently can be as simple as 

sending a thank you note with every 

order or following up weeks after a 

coaching session to ensure goals are 

being met. 

9. Learn, Grow And Stay Up To Date: 

Health and wellness is a research and 

evidence - based sector hence 

recommended practices are always 

evolving. Staying up to date on current 

health and wellness trends is critical to 

staying relevant to your clients and will 

set you ahead of others in the niche. Be 

on the lookout for courses, training or 

organisations that can improve your 

service delivery. It is advised to also get 

a mentor in the space, preferably 

someone who you can always reach for 

guidance. Build a relevant network 

with people in that niche who will 

open you up to new opportunities. 

10. Find An Accountability Partner/ 

Cheerleader: There is a popular 

notion that the process of starting a 

company can be a very lonely one but 

it doesn't have to be. Humans are very 

social beings and as such, having 

someone you share the high and lows 

of your growth pattern with can go a 

long way in keeping you accountable 

and boosting your productivity. 

Finally, never let the fear of starting 

keep you from playing the game. Stay 

Healthified.

COMING SOON 

ISSN 2384-5430 

9 772384 543008

HEALTHCARE - AUGUST-SEPTEMBER EDITION

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