Making extra income is in the minds of most Nigerians, especially as it appears the economy is not totally out of recession.
To beat the lull from creating bigger holes in the pockets of many Nigerians, entrepreneurship coaches advise that it is time for you to look within and think of a commodity to sell, which is in high demand in target locations.
One of such businesses you can consider, considering the irregular power supply witnessed over the years, is iceblock production.
No matter what happens, people still drink chilled water; it is just that the demand may drop a little, but not completely, during the rainy season. What may keep you afloat is
With the ever-busy, crowded streets, roads and markets with millions of business people, traders, office workers and school children going about their daily activities, there is usually the thirst for cold drinks.
A personal finance coach, Mr. Abiodun Esho, explained that the iceblock-making business was easy to start and the initial capital of starting this kind of business was relatively low; depending on the scale of the start-up.
“If you are starting this business in a place where power supply is really on the low side, you may have to spend more on fuel to power your generating set, but the good thing is that, you don’t need any technical skills to get started,” he said.
The basic skills that can get you started are customer service skills. You also need to have a good marketing strategy, as there are competitors in this line of business.
When you are starting out on a low scale, you can actually start in your house, using your deep freezer and generator as the basic start-up equipment.
It has been observed over time that iceblock-making business thrives mostly in densely populated areas, with records of inadequate power supply.
Thus, all you need to do is to ensure that you make your production area extremely hygienic and make sure you have access to clean water. All you need to do is to thoroughly boil the water you want to use for the block.
After boiling, you let it cool off; then you start dispensing into the appropriate storage containers, with tight lids after which you carefully arrange them in the deep freezer.
Once you are done with packing the water to be frozen, it is left for the iceblock-making machine or the freezer to ‘do its job’ without any human input.
Averagely, it would take about 12 hours to get solid iceblocks, so make sure you programme your business activities in such a way that you won’t have to disappoint your clients.
You can even partner with events centers around you by reaching out to their managers. Since they are always involved in organising outdoor events, they will always need iceblocks to chill drinks and bottled water.
You can also go around town to locate people that operate kiosk businesses, as they are always in need of iceblocks, and you can win them over, if you choose to supply them without additional delivery cost and also make sure you try to target market places, and sport’s stadia.
Despite the fact that iceblock-making business is a seasonal one, as there are peak periods, especially during the hot season, and low period during wet or cold season, knowing how to manage these seasons is very important; as this will help you stay in business all through the year.
No matter what happens, people still drink chilled water; it is just that the demand may drop a little, but not completely, during the rainy season. What may keep you afloat is to add services like helping people preserve their meat, fish, poultry, sea foods and other perishable goods.
You can also help people that produce ice cream in large quantity to freeze their cream.
The good thing about running an iceblock-making business is that you can successfully combine it with other businesses, since it doesn’t require your presence 24 hours of the day.
You can advertise your business to neighbours around you, with a small printed banner in front of your house, so that they would know the kind of product you have to offer.
Even if the location of your business is visible enough for all to see, advertising it still helps to highlight the areas where you think you have an edge over your competitors.
It would not cost you much to advertise this kind of business. You don’t need a radio jingle or TV slot to get started; all you need to do is, start with a banner.
Then, as your business grows, you can print small-size handbills and flyers. You can even leverage on the social media to tell people the kind of product you have to offer.
If you rely on people to patronise you without going out to create new markets, you might not break even on time. It is certain that you will recoup your capital fast, if, from the outset, you adopt an aggressive marketing approach.
