Date: 2020-06-20

Despite the ease of the lock down in various states across the country, small business owners complain about low patronage.

Uduak Akan, a baker in Kwara State is one of those entrepreneurs sharing her worries and how one can surmount the new posers.

She said, "The present economic reality is crippling and really terrible as I didn't see it coming. Before the lock down sales were good, I work alone so I didn't have to lay off workers. But I haven't been able to pay myself."

Online sales this period are not moving as expected when you move to the rural area as COVID-19 prompted her to do so in recent time.

But she is bracing the odds, by switching to service delivery rather than product sales alone. "I've been able to come up with online classes at very subsidized rates. If people can't pay for a product, they should be able to pay to learn how to make them since they have the time now."

She has got words for youths in business this time: "My advice to youths will be to get more creative, read wide, understand your clients better, and advertise your products and services. People are mostly online this period, so there is a greater chance they'll get to see it, they may not need your services now, but definitely after the whole pandemic is over, they will come for them."

She further advised that young entrepreneurs should work more on their businesses' social media outlook and presence, and be more engaging with people on the other side.

Uduak said one of the methods that could boost businesses now is to refer clients to other bakers. "After the lockdown, I hope to get them back. If entrepreneurs would need to do things differently, it would be having better customer services, better packaging, and better delivery services," she concluded.

Habib Akewusola is a small business writer and young entrepreneur in Ilorin, Kwara State. Contact him via, akewusolahabib@gmail.com