Overcoming The Stigma Of Online Scams To Reach The Global Market
How An Honest Nigerian Netpreneur Can Manage The Scam Stigma To Do Business Online
It will be foolhardy to embark on an online business as a Nigerian netpreneur without giving proper consideration to the challenge of our country's poor image within the internet family. In a classic case of the bad driving out the good, a handful of fraud merchants walking the web and leaving trails that identify them as Nigerians have ended up painting the country as a land of internet scammers. The sad truth, we know, is that there are tens of millions of honest, enterprising Nigerians for any fraudulent one. The burden, for these millions, is how to ward off the stigma, earned for all by the few bad eggs, and be able to trade on the internet as citizens of one global family.
June 2006 must have been a sad month for one Nigerian member of the SitePoint forum (www.sitepoint.com/forum) who signed in as Bola123 on June 8 2006 to ask an ordinarily harmless question regarding how she could proceed to build an online business. Well, a lot of the forum participants quickly wrote off her chance of being taken seriously by the world, on account of the fraud reputation of her country. I'm sure she won't give up her dream, but seriously speaking, it leaves you something to ponder about. Obviously, it raises the challenge of what to do to overcome these stereotypes and earn the acceptance and trust of the world, at least to give you a chance to prove yourself. If you're a Nigerian wishing to do business online and concerned about this factor, here are a few suggestions as to what you could do:
Your Determination Is Your First Tool
Nothing is ever easy in life and the hurdles in this case are obviously herculean. Beyond the stigmatisation, there are serious infrastructural and even public interest drawbacks at home. Should these stop you? Definitely not, if you have determination and a vision. No obstacle should be big enough to kill your aspiration and snuff out your dream. It's important, though, to realise that there is a huge burden to carry, but this should only condition you to realising that you'll possibly work ten times as hard, to achieve the result of somebody else from a favoured environment. (Continues below...)
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The Home Market May Be A Good SpringBoard Granted that the internet offers the unique opportunity to access the global market from your small corner, it may be realistic to appreciate that a softer landing will be provided by the local market, limiting as it may be. If you can target your offering to the home market, it provides a basis to fine-tune your business, build local acceptance, earn some credibility and, perhaps, be noticed by the world. Besides, significant changes are taking place, in terms of infrastructural base, e-commerce growth and, yes, the current government's dogged drive to stamp out advance-fee fraud, internet scams and other criminal activities that have done untold damage to the nation's economy.
Nigerians In The Diaspora May Also Count This group may again be more accommodating than the rest of the world. Besides, they can more readily find independent ways to run a check on your business. It should also be easier to identify products needs of this group that you can meet from here. It's definitely a sizeable market and more importantly, a financially empowered group. Your challenge may therefore lie in identifying a product need of this group that you can fill and seeking channels to build a name.
Meet The World With Something Unique If you can, identify a unique and compelling product, especially from the local environment, to offer the world. The point here is that you possibly won't be a more attractive option for the shopper in Florida, USA, to buy a PC from. Not when he has to worry about your credibility as an added risk factor. If however you have a product that he can't find elsewhere, he might consider giving your a chance, if he strongly wants it.
Grab Every Opportunity With Both Hands Reputation is cultivated, you must always remember; so earn your reputation. It takes time to build credibility and it is the cumulative experience of dealing with you that says whether or not you are worthy of trust. Your business cannot survive and thrive if you don't build a reputation for integrity, reliability and efficient customer service. The imperative is that even the slimmest of opportunities should be seen as gold and handled with utmost commitment, responsibility and integrity. If consistently you do not disappoint anybody who has given you a chance from whatever part of the globe, chances are that you not only begin to enjoy repeat business, but referrals may ultimately follow. It could be slow, but the key is to make progress and build on your results.
Be True To Yourself One of the SitePoint forum participants had suggested to Bola123 to "use a whois guard to hide your whois information". We see this as a desperate and dishonest solution and such measures hardly yield sustainable benefit. Recall that local manufacturers did that in the past, labeling their goods as "made in Italy" or some other advanced country. The good news today is that "proudly Nigerian" labels adorn many locally made goods and they have good patronage in the market place. An escapist strategy will hurt you eventually, so the real option is to face up to it, be who you are and ask the world for a chance to prove yourself. Hopefully, somebody will listen someday.
Continue To Pray For your business, for the country. You know Nigerians love to worship and pray, whether as Christians, Muslims or of other religions. It's really an irony that such deeply religious people would end up with such a damned image abroad just because of the handiwork of a handful of desperate easy-money-seeking bad eggs. So, keep praying for sustained reforms as presently being pursued by the Government so as to firmly stamp out these vices that have done so much damage to the soul of the nation. With the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission seriously on the war path with the scam syndicates, the world may soon realise that there's much to gain doing business online with the estimated 150 million Nigerian populace.
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