How to start building material business in Nigeria

Are you intending to tow the building material field?
OK yes and that's right, I got this is for you.

In view of how lucrative estate management is and how quick rentage fees are increasing, it is a wise endeavour to meddle with building materials. Obviously, it is a sustainable business because more houses are being constructed daily and renovation us also another active exercise going in regularly in most vicinities.

However, one must note that it is not a business that gives an everyday return especially when you're still just starting with it. It takes a while to gain customers and have them coming back to you regularly as repeat customers. So patience is needed but the net returns are usually great, that I can confidently assure you.

So then, what are the necessary steps to take when embarking on launching a building materials business in Nigeria?

Here are your answers!

1... Get some enlightenment

Enlightenment on the running system of the business is necessary if you do not have adequate idea already. You can get enlightened perhaps by running through the market to ask for specific prices for certain categories of these materials, perhaps roofing sheet, gravel, cement, nails etc. With this idea from the market, you can now understand how much profit you could be making if you could find a place to get these items lesser than these prices.

2... Raise capital

Every business requires capital and some businesses requires even more capital than the others. The building material business can accommodate budgets of different capitals. You could commence with little capital and grow big. You can also commence with big capital and grow bigger, it all depends on what's available to you and what type of budget you wish to run on. Whatever the case may be, you'll need to raise funding, enough funding to lease a shop and stock good and relevant materials.

3... Find a good site

A good spot is one that allows you direct access to people needing your services. Fixing a good place for your building material business is an excellent idea and has no excuse for not doing that. It is quite a good idea to find a suitable location in the open market, but understand there are already too many people of such dealers in the market and the competition might discourage you if you do not have your own clearly mapped out strategies already because they have all the clients already. It would be a professional advise to tell you it's nicer to find a location where budding
activities and real estate are on rapid rise already and establish within. Firstly, it makes labour cheaper to these buyers and they'll appreciate that and secondly, you do not have to worry about competition as you're the only dealer around, your success and quick growth is guaranteed.

4... Connect with contractors and builders
In Nigeria, almost everything is about connection. If you do not have the right connection, you'd go through hell to see yourself through. In this endeavor, you need to make friends, yes friends with benefit. Make friends with active contractors who take on contract jobs for building projects, with this you can become a direct supplier to them instead of them having to go to the market to scout their items or you waiting on buyers to approach you. So connect with as many contractors as you can and tell them what you're going into, most would even be happy to deal with you because since you're new in the system, they'd like to believe you'd sell cheaper.

5... Find a suitable supply source

This is another sensitive area. Supply! It wouldn't be wise to go to the open market to buy individual items to come place in your store as stock, you might just end up loosing your capital because these people are selling to you with much gains already because they think you're a consumer, even if they know you aren't a consumer, greed would still play and they'll sell these items to you at a cost which would see you making little or zero profit from your after.