Jorn Barger, the man who coined the term “weblog” 22 years ago, may never have imagined that it would become a lucrative enterprise for many. Reports indicate that the once prolific blogging pioneer now sleeps rough on the streets of San Francisco, penniless and forgotten. Whether accurate or not, the contrast Barger’s life portrays with today’s modern millionaire blog stars gives the story a poignant irony.

Barger, the editor of Robot Wisdom, blended ‘web’ and ‘log’ to describe the process of ‘logging the web’ and using it as a medium to reach out to a target audience.

According to the Oxford Advanced English Dictionary (9th Edition), blog is a type of website that is usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or videos that interest followers

From its rather bland origin a few decades ago, blogging has today grown into a money-spinning industry, such that more ordinary people (not only meant for supposedly intelligence or professional content) are finding ways to monetize their sites and turn their passions into a living.

Hence, there are different blogs for different purposes – fashion, gossips, travel, cooking and many other purposes.

Today, too, blogs have become interactive in nature, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static traditional websites.

Available statistics on Wordometers’ website indicate that total number of blog posts published every day in the world runs over 10 million. This, according to Wordometers, is based on data obtained from over 440 million blogs on Tumblr, Squarespace, Blogger and WordPress.

Although the statistics appear plausible, it is actually difficult to determine the total number of blogs in the world, considering the fact that blogs come and go, and quite a lot of them continue to exist online but are, in fact, dormant; abandoned by the user only after a few weeks or months.

Likely, with other blog-hosting platforms such as LiveJournal, TypePad, and Medium, the total number of blogs is believed to exceed 440 million.

For instance, the Washington Post in 2015 estimated that there were over 107 million bloggers in the United States of America, and that the number would increase by 50 per cent by year 2020. This means that nearly half of the country’s population of 326,153,899, based on latest United Nations’ estimates, will be involved in one blogging activity or the other.

If you minus the USA’s 107 million from the 440 million provided by Worldometers, this implies that there are about 333 million blogs spread across Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, Antarctica and Australia. But what is more interesting is how blogging has evolved from anarchic means for dedicated amateur enthusiasts to self-publishing venture where revenue is derived in billions.

Available statistics on Wordometers’ website indicate that total number of blog posts published every day in the world runs over 10 million. This, according to Wordometers, is based on data obtained from over 440 million blogs on Tumblr, Squarespace, Blogger and WordPress

With the Google Blogger, for example, your blog can be hosted free by Google at a sub domain of blogspot.com. Or, you may choose to register your blog in the registered custom domain of the blogger (like www.example.com). And you can, as well, have up to 100 blogs per account.

How Google shares billions with bloggers
Explaining to Business Eye how Google is providing support to publishers in terms of revenue and training, the Communications and Public Relations Manager, Google West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, says that the company links people to relevant and timely articles from news sources from around the world through computer-generated site that draws from over 80, 000 news publishers from over 40 different languages spanning over 70 countries, including Nigeria.

He explained: “Google helps publishers make money via our search and advertising platforms. In 2017, we shared more than $12.6 billion with our publisher partners. This is up from $11billion in 2016.”

According to him, the company helps news publishers sell ads via its network, and exchange, providing significant revenue, which they (news publishers) take a larger part of the revenue, averaging over 70 per cent.

Taiwo disclosed that in 2015, the company launched the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project with a number of publishers and technology partners from around the world to improve the mobile experience by solving a pain point for users around slow loading content.

“The AMP Ads Initiative helps advertisers build fast and engaging ads on mobile, resulting in higher eCPMs for a majority of publishers on AMP pages versus non-AMP pages.

“AMP Ads addresses not just how ads are built, but also how they’re delivered and measured. The average mobile ad weighs a hefty 816K taking 4 seconds to load on a 3G connection. The average mobile page makes 107 uncoordinated ad server requests”, he said.

Google helps publishers make money via our search and advertising platforms. In 2017, we shared more than $12.6 billion with our publisher-partners. This was up from $11billion in 2016.

Expatiating on how his company aids the growth of the sub-segment of the Internet-based market, Taiwo pointed out that with the Google Play, publishers can sell their content directly to consumers via newsstands, adding that currently, there are over “4,000 news sources, including newspapers, magazines and blogs” benefiting from such direct sells.

Little wonder that today’s richest and most influential bloggers have high net worth in millions and billions.

World richest bloggers
Alexa ranking for website traffic, statistics and analytics indicate that the Huffington Post, which was launched in 2005 by millionaire socialite, Arianna Huffington, and later transformed to HuffPost, used to rake in over $18 million monthly at its infancy. That is roughly N6.570 billion.

The company was bought by AOL, a web portal and online service provider based in New York. It is a brand marketed by Oath, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, for $315 million in 2001. Today, HuffPost is estimated at $1 billion or N365 billion at the current exchange rate.

Another blog that has high income ranking on Alexa is Engadget. It has a monthly income of $5.5 million. Owner of the blog, Peter Rojas, was coaxed over to Weblog Inc. in 2004 after cutting his teeth on popular tech blog Gizmodo.

Today, Engadget is a blogging franchise covering different aspects of consumer technology in several different languages. Respected for its gadget reviews and advice columns as well as its industry news, Engadget also makes its fortune from advertising. It was also sold to AOL for $25 million in 2005.

Others on the top ten list of richest bloggers in the world, according to Alexa ranking, include TechCrunch, owned by Michael Arrington ($800,000); Mashable, owned by Pete Cashmore ($600,000) Mario Lavanderia (PerezHilton, $400,000). Vitaly Friedman ($190,000), Timothy Sykes ($180,000), Jake Dobki ($110,000), Collis Ta’eed ($110,000), Gina Trapani ($110,000), Matt Marshall ($100,000), and Ewdison Then ($60,000). The earnings are captured monthly.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Linda Ikeji, who is dubbed ‘Queen of Bloggers,’ is ranked 2,531on Alexa. But a critical look at the ranking reveals that the “Queen” may not have been fairly ranked, if monthly incomes are used as basis of ranking.

For example, the last two bloggers mentioned above — Ewdison Then is ranked 8,440 on Alexa and he earns about $60,000 a month; Matt Marshall’s Alexa ranking is 2,088 and he makes $100,000. And both have made the list of top ten earners. Clearly, Linda Ikeji’s Alexa ranking of 2,531is higher than that of Ewdison Then, who has 8,440.

Based on the ranking, Linda is earning over $100,000 a month, or $1.2 million a year; that is about N4.380 billion based on the current exchange rate.

She earns this huge sum a year with just a laptop and a modem. But, of course, the 37-year old has a dogged attitude to her blogging, such that is uncommon and not easy to imbibe by anyone lazy.

Talk of content, Linda’s blog has 99 per cent of celebrity gossips, entertainment gist, fashion, news and events.

Coming from a very humble beginning to stardom as the highest paid Nigerian blogger, Linda tried herself in many trades to support herself in school and her family – from working as a waitress to ushering, then to modeling – before discovering blogging, where her passion and zeal have earned her the glory she enjoys.

She once said: “I never even thought that I would make money from blogging. I didn’t start blogging with the mindset that one day I would make money from it. I didn’t even think that was a possibility, it never even crossed my mind. I didn’t say to myself that OK let me blog now and maybe in five years time, I will make money from it.

“I never imagined that it would ever happen. In fact, in 2008, 2009, I was putting free ads on my blog, I was telling my blog readers, please give me your ads and I will put them for free. But then in 2010, people started asking me for my advert rates and I was like ‘really?’

I didn’t even know what it was until I now asked a few people and they gave me their own advert rates so that is how it started”, the Nigerian blog ‘queen’ added.

Clearly, she has achieved so much from a little beginning, but her dogged, relentless and humble attitude appears to have helped in changing her life story, although she couldn’t confirm this, as several efforts to reach her were not successful.

Learning from an expert
In Nigeria, next to Linda is Fabmimi’s Blog, owned by Mimi Juliet Atedze, who has also got a share of Google’s $12.6 billion in addition to other sources of revenue through her blog.

Mimi told Business Eye that there were several ways of earning money from blogging. She currently boasts of over “6 digits” income per month. She says “I can’t give you a figure, but blogging is very lucrative.”

You can deduce that 6 digits is equivalent to N1million. And she makes this money, majorly, through Google Ad sense, a web-based application run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements, that are targeted to site content and audiences.

How does the money come through Ad sense? Mimi explains: “Instead of waiting to generate 1million page views daily (like Linda Ikeji’s Blog), I decided to earn through Ad sense, and building my earnings around the services I offer, like charging clients for freelancing, public relations, advertising and marketing.

“This has helped a great deal in making me generate 6 figure earnings. I also help upcoming and aspiring bloggers open news blogs; this is also usually paid for. But I make my money from Ad sense, Ad banners and pay per post”, she added.

Today, Mimi can’t think of a more powerful tool in her life than blogging. Apart from earning thousands of dollars monthly, she also makes new connections from around the world and gains new valuable skills.

Like other bloggers, Mimi has the zeal meshed with passion for blogging. She also taps inspiration from renowned bloggers, not Jorn Barger or Arianna Huffington, but fellow Nigerian bloggers such as Niyi Tabiti, Linda Ikeji and Bella Nija, among others.

At first, it wasn’t rosy, Mimi explained. She had to get used to sitting for several hours, making sure her electronic gadgets were functional, having robust internet connection and, most importantly, getting content that could drive traffic to her blog.

As a wife and mother, she admitted that balancing between her blogging activities and her matrimonial commitment – taking care of her kids and attending to her husband, whom she gives credit for being of full support – has been nerve-racking.

More overwhelming is the fact that she is also a civil servant at the National Human Rights Commission. She says having to drag all her responsibilities with equal energy hasn’t been easy. You can call her a superwoman for coping with all.

Like every humble beginner, Mimi started from documenting her daily activities – parties she attended, places she visited, fashion tales, weddings, among others. Later, Fabmimi became a potpourri of politics, entertainment, fashion, lifestyle and events portal. She also embellishes her blog with gossips, scandals and breaking news.

According to her, money didn’t come from the very start. Fabmimi was launched in 2010, and two years after she said money didn’t come in until she was mentored by an already established blogger, Niyi Tabiti.

“The first few years were hell. I heard about people making money, but I never had that opportunity until Niyi Tabiti mentored me and introduced me to Ad sense. That was how I joined the act of making money as a blogger”, Mimi reminisced.

She projected to double her earnings in the next five years by “adding new stuff” to her blog, away from the conventional posting. And she is going to do more videos, interviews, movies and documentaries.

In addition to blogging, Mimi currently has a youtube channel FabmimiTv which has only few videos. She speaks about her vision: “I wanna be the next person on Forbes Magazine Women in Media.”

Your blog at risk
But while she currently boasts of earning fantastic incomes from her blog, Mimi explains that this fortune hasn’t been without some challenges. For instance, she claimed to have lost her job with the Benue Sate Civil Service when she was accused of defaming a former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam.

“Aaaah…I marked Former Governor Suswam’s Government closely. I reported all activities of the government. They sacked me unlawfully,” she alleged.

According to her, her public service predicament started when she was appointed the Personal Assistant Media and Protocol to the first female Speaker of Benue State House of Assembly at the return of democracy when George Akume was elected Governor in 1999. That was just after her youth service and first professional experience as a journalist at Pavilion Newspaper.

She has even received several threats from thugs. She relates “Last year, I published a story on a Nigerian guy who scams women in the name of marriage. He called me out, threatened to sue me but I didn’t pull down the post. I received trolls from people on Social Media too, but am not bothered…..”

Mimi’s experience is akin to other bloggers whom you haven’t got the opportunity to hear. It tells you that blogging is a golden egg being guarded by the most vicious snakes and crocks. So while you nurse the idea of blogging, do not just consider the money you are going to earn; also consider the risks and the rigour of making it attractive for the money to start coming.

There is also the risk of getting your fingers burnt online by some mischievous masquerades who hide to defame people with fake news content; that’s why Mimi strongly calls on government to initiate policies such that would require all bloggers to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission, so as to monitor activities such unguarded bloggers.

“By registering blogs with the CAC, those who post fake and hate news will be fished out. Some anonymous blogs are the ones causing these problems. The integrity of bloggers is very important, we all try in our different ways to avoid libelous articles that can send one to jail,” she said.

The Guild of Professional Bloggers of Nigeria, which Mimi and other popular bloggers such as Linda Ikeji, Bella Naija, and many others belong to, is dubbed ‘Nigeria’s premier bloggers group. But, apparently, the group is handicapped as to how it would control what goes online.

In reaction to this, Taiwo explains Google’s Publisher Policies thus: “We review thousands of sites for violations every day, and we removed over 100,000 publishers from AdSense in 2016. Since 2012, Google has blacklisted more than 91,000 sites from AdSense for violating our policies against copyright infringement, the vast majority caught by AdSense’s own proactive screens.

“Our new Policy Center in AdSense is a one-stop shop for everything a publisher needs to know about policy actions affecting their sites and pages. In 2016, we removed 1.7 billion bad ads from publisher sites in our ad network”, the Google’s spokesperson added.

A cursory reflection on the experiences of the world’s top bloggers, especially the Nigerians, shows that some lessons could be learnt from them. These are that, it helps if you blog on a certain topic. Technology, personal finance, online entrepreneurial advice, beauty and fashion, food, lifestyle and, of course, how to get rich off blogging seem to be the best routes to making a fortune.

Nothing comes easy. Analysts agree that a lot of the income streams associated with blogging are indirect – it isn’t like a salaried position where you get paid for what you write.

According to them, the actual writing earns next to nothing, as a blogger is just simply using the content to create a platform from which to launch other money spinning ventures. Doing great, in the views of industry experts, takes a lot of extra hard work, as well as an understanding of how online marketing works. Mentoring, as the experience of Mimi shows, can also be helpful to a new blogging space entrant.

Social impact of bloggers in Nigeria
Going by the ranking of local bloggers on Alexa, in terms of social impact to the Nigerian society, here are top ten blogs that pull crowd in numbers based on category and rank:
Although the financial worth of these blogs is not readily available, but considering the stats of Alexa on the worth of Linda Ikeji and what Mimi told this magazine, a 6 figure earning in hard currency like USD 100, 000 is equivalent to N36.5 million (far more than the average salary package in Nigeria pegged at N14 million per annum).

Don’t be amazed that one individual earns this huge sum sitting down with his/her laptop and internet stick.

If you are inspired, the first step is making a serious effort to climb the ladder like Tosin Oyetade, a new entrant in blogging. She told this magazine in an interview that she would like to see herself among the top earners with her blog – tosin.life.com — in a near future.

The must-know about future of blogging
There are countless reasons to start a blog, but for some people, the biggest obstacle they face is how to prove that blogging is not only perfect for small businesses and personal sites, but larger companies as well.

If you are one of those, consider that some amazing statistics prove that the future of blogging is very bright. Worldometers confirmed in December 2017 that 81per cent of U.S. online users trust information and advice received from blogs.

It also indicated that blogs have 97 per cent of in-bound businesses links, and 92 per cent of companies that blog have acquired more customers from their blog, and they have 434 per cent more indexed pages.

The Internet is a powerful tool where billions are being spent on daily basis for all kinds of good in the world. It’s also a place where you can start a blog and forge a place for yourself, your business, or anything in between.

What it takes to earn income from blogging
In terms of the techniques, the bloggers mentioned above used to make their blogs generate income. There are over 101 businesses your blog can attract, but the most common form of direct income generated by bloggers, as Taiwo puts it, is creating premium digital content to sell through site.

Popular examples are courses, eBooks, and tutorials, which are particularly well suited to advice blogs. Digital products require no space or shipping. You can create yours for sale or look out for those that want to sell through your platform.

A cursory reflection on the experiences of the world’s top bloggers, especially the Nigerians, shows that some lessons could be learnt from them

There are other lessons to learn from blogging as a business venture. But until you try, the next time someone tells you that s/he is a blogger, do not hesitate to respect them because of their creative sagacity. You might be oblivious of how much efforts they put in, and how that translates to millions in the long run.

From the foregoing, blogging is an intellectual task that is time consuming. But then, it pays in terms of what comes as rewards for savvy adventurers!

101 new business Ideas

Apart from blogging, here’s a catalogue of other business ideas you can try your hands on:

1. A car sharing app.
2. Specially designed carrier bags for hawking.
3. Production of spicy peanut butter flavour or cinnamon peanut butter flavour.
4. Having a fleet of ice cream selling trucks.
5. Farm or buy a fruit tree, and sell the produce.
6. Start ready-to-bake/fry pastries like samosas, spring rolls, pies, etc.
7. Make fit-farmers eat healthier produce and sell pre-cut mixed vegetables.
8. Produce black manikins instead of white.
9. Produce spinach bread/other types of vegetables infused bread.
10. Platform for portrait artists to sign up and showcase their art skills.
11. Manufacturing of cooking compatible long lighters, apart from matches.
12. A platform for visitors looking for short stays in private homes, apart from hotels.
13. Start niche blogging about African women attires, cars, etc.
14. Use dried feathers to make soft fit queen pillows.
15. Have an online directory for handy technical works.
16. Make hair, skin or beauty products that cater for the masses.
17. Outsourcing of feedback collection to a third-party company by event organisers.
18. Design and sell affordable under wears for just 2% of the population?
19. Use mystery shoppers to get actual customer experience about employees.
20. Electronic notebooks for secondary and university students.
21. Spa and Saloon booking websites can be new areas to explore.
22. Online accommodation search service.
23. Delivery and logistics platform online.
24. You can create an online retail platform to sell your products.
25. Create online platform for business consultancy services.
26. Create an e-pharmacy and delivery platform.
27. Create effective online platforms for ticket sales for all events.
28. Online platform where people can rent trucks or vans to move their property.
29. A digital platform where books can easily be sold or acquired.
30. App for all promos and bargains given by companies for customers to download.
31. Set up a cleaning service to keep the streets and gutters of Lagos clean.
32. Manufacturing and selling of portable barbecue grills at affordable prices.
33. Platform for leasing of space and machinery.
34. Semi-processed foods like egusi and garri can be exported out of Nigeria.
35. A platform to facilitate sharing/leasing of certain household appliances/equipment.
36. Start an online school.
37. You can be a food critic online or partner with a local newspaper.
38. A platform can be created for people to sell their fairly used clothes for money.
39. Online directory for Nigerian NGOs
40. Tomato farming business
41. Online platform for pitching of business ideas and how to secure crowd funding.
42. Ready-to-eat atarodo sauce.
43. Selling culinary art, skills, etc.
44. Platform for designing wedding e-invitation cards for guests.
45. Rope-like device for easy towing of a car by another car.
46. Placing and maintaining sanitary bins.
47. Partnership between designers/shoemakers for standard made-in-Nigeria shoes.
48. Sale of ready-made designs and clothes online.
49. Create an event application for smaller events like meetings, birthdays, etc.
50. Platform to rent properties.
51. Food-bank for poor Nigerians.
52. Build a dry spice mix business.
53. Start a business that manages individual homes.
54. Start producing chocolates rich in cocoa.
55. Start a laundry service to help the working class/very busy individuals.
56. Design and manufacture made-in-Nigeria toys.
57. Bus trackers to help commuters.
58. Personal translators for expatriates/visitors.
59. Self-publishing in storytelling.
60. Start editing services for others.
61. Niche blogging in fashion.
62. Start a supply chain in healthcare services.
63. E-learning website.
64. Online platform for chefs and food delivery service.
65. Start an AJO (money saving) society online.
66. Platform for lesson teachers.
67. Online directory platform for gyms and other sports facilities.
68. Online marketplace for artisans.
69. Financial times website to analyse industries for investors.
70. Online platform that showcases different stock prices.
71. Start an eatery franchise.
72. Start an online dating platform in Nigeria.
73. Produce nylon, heavy-duty bin bags.
74. Online platform for selling/leasing of wedding dresses.
75. Platform for hiring of groomsmen, bridesmaids and flower girls.
76. Price comparison site.
77. Produce short comedy skits and upload for online.
78. Produce Nigerian sausages.
79. Online travel community for group trips arrangements.
80. Marketing/foodstuff delivery.
81. Make and sell yam chips.
82. Platform for patients to book appointments with doctors.
83. Partner with fast food restaurants to donate leftover meals to the less privileged.
84. Collect unused items (clothes, shoes, bags, electronics, etc) and donate to charity.
85. Teaching entrepreneurship to primary school children.
86. A home for the care elderly people.
87. Start language and culinary lessons.
88. Transform architectural designs into pictures.
89. Design screw-less furniture to be assembled like Lego bricks.
90. Application for designing of business cards.
91. Produce ice blocks and sell in different sizes.
92. Website for interchange of goods.
93. Create an app that vets doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
94. Blog that engages students nationwide in Nigeria.
95. Platform for hiring of various healthcare professionals.
96. Platform for renting of equipment due to high cost of purchase.
97. Partner with banks or supermarkets to place lockers in their premises.
98. Begin data analysis for companies to predict customer behaviour.
99. App for production of quality fashion designs for African market.
100. Start e-commerce for selling niche products like kitchen utensils.
101. Collaborate/partner with others to work out your ideas.

The ideas above clearly reflect current trends in the digital era called ‘Jet age’. Businesses are being transformed from analogue to improved technology, which has paved way for all kinds of businesses to flourish and have online presence where half of the world’s population scours for all sorts of information.

Why your business needs digital presence
It is estimated that over 3.2 billion people are now using the Internet, according to the United Nations agency that oversees international communications (International Communications Union).

The ICU disclosed that the number of internet users has increased from 738 million in 2000 to 3.2 billion in 2015. That’s a seven-fold increase that brought Internet penetration up from 7 per cent to 43 per cent of the global population. Interestingly, of all connected individuals, the ICU said some 2 billion live in developing countries, including Nigeria.

Sadly, more than 50 per cent of the estimated 2 billion spend most of their time on social media. They have nothing to create value for themselves online.

The internet is like a boat sailing business holders to a glorious destination, but many are missing, unfortunately. A research conducted by San Mateo of the Merill Research in 2017 shows how smaller businesses can leverage their position in the world’s largest market community (online) .

Tagged ‘Benefits And Barriers Of Bringing A Small Business Online: Perspectives From Global Small Businesses’, the study measured the responses of 1,050 businesses with 1 to 49 employees. The demographics revealed that 150 each were from China, France, Germany, India, Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom. And all of the respondents were from the commercial sector (i.e., not educational, governmental, military, or non-profit) and they had to have an online presence of some sort (either a website, social media account, e-commerce site, local review site, or a blog).

About 40 per cent of the respondents preferred using the social media, considering the cost of having IT personnel on their staff. E-commerce giants like Amazon, E-bay, Shopify, Jumia, among others, know the importance of having online presence are fully taking advantage of it.

But while many business holders in other climes are excelling through the use of internet, their counterparts in developing regions are still shooting aimlessly in the winds. Some are bedeviled by the not-so-viable business environment which has posed lots of challenges, particularly to Small and Medium Enterprises.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Solomon Aderoju, told this magazine that the nation’s business environment is chaotic, unfriendly, and very challenging, especially for the small business holders to eke out a living.

“My major concerns include: Lack of infrastructural facilities, inconsistent government policy and policy summersault, high level of corruption in the society, multiple tax system, lack of financing that meets the needs of SMEs, lack of information and inadequate capacity building for SME operators, lack of access to market, and influx of foreign products in Nigerian market, among others,” he said.

But in the face of these challenges, NASME has put buffers in place to reduce the overwhelming shock. According to Aderoju, the association facilitates short term loans for its members at low percentage.

“We have our In-house Cooperative Society where members can access short term credit. Also, we are working on having a closer tie with some selected commercial and Micro finance banks that share and understand SME business models, though the interest is high. However, some of our members access the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) loans at 5 per cent per annum,” he said.

According to him, NASME does not charge for such facilitation but the advancement and expansion of its members’ businesses is a major fulfillment for the association.

And with the support of some international agencies such as the UNDP, UNIDO, IFC, and World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME), the association has been engaging various Government bodies and regulatory agencies through public private dialogue and advocacy to lobby for some favours, though bureaucratic bottlenecks haven’t made swift the lobbies.

Efforts to learn more from the Head of eBusiness, Glo Nig. Plc, Benjamin Akinteye, hit the rock, as he declined talking to this magazine without permission from his company.

But while the fight for a conducive business environment for SMEs lingers, the internet has afforded many business holders enormous opportunities to expand and earn big with little or no hitches. You might tap inspiration from Linda Ikeji, Mimi Juliet Atedze, Bella Naija, and a lot others. 