How to really make money by buying and selling things

If you want to start your own business, all you need is to be creative. Your idea

doesn’t necessarily have to be a brand new one, it doesn’t have to be something

never considered before. You just have to think and act reasonablyThink about what you want to do, about whether it is going to be profitable and

demanded in your area, and what range of people are going to be your potential

clients. It may seem too complicated in theory, and it is definitely very responsible

and time consuming in practice. But if you are sure the effort is worth that risk

taken, don’t be afraid to go for it.

In case you aren’t sure where to start from, consider the sphere of trade. It doesn’t

mean you will have to rent a counter and spend days standing among rows of

sellers. Now you have the Internet and its limitless (well, almost limitless)

opportunities. For instance, you can try to sell something people lack. Where could

you get it? That’s easy: on Amazon or AliExpress , places where you can find

everything and after that sell it on Jiji.ng . How is it going to work? Very successfully.

What are the benefits?

If it seems too easy for you, or you cannot believe it can bring real profit, take some

time and devote it to simple calculations.

Let’s suppose you are going to sell Huawei Nexus 6P 32GB. Its price (including

delivery) equals to $464.97 or ₦131,230.62 here from Amazon.

After that you will make markup 10% and now the price is = $511.47 And sell it via

Jiji.ng near you location. In total your profit is = $46.50

And now, Imagine that you bought 9-phones for $4184.73, waited two weeks

(because of delivery) and sell via Jiji.ng all 9-phones, so your total profit is $4603,23

– $4184.73 = $418.50 or ₦118,009.39

Nice, yes?

And what about prices for the new one on Jumia? ₦272,495 for the new one…

Let’s look at iPhone 5S 16GB!

Aliexpress! Price for this iPhone is $214,19 or ₦60,401.58 including delivery to

Nigeria.

And this is the price on Konga:

Step 1. Find out what are the people’s needs

If you have someone to help you with this, it would be perfect. But you can also hire

an expert for professional consulting. Or you can always spend some time

researching the field (if you have enough time and patience, of course).

In the end, you will get to know about three types of market trends – short,

intermediate- and long-term ones, each with its own peculiaritiesLearning to identify the trend is the major task. You need to know the psychology of

the market in order to understand how it moves and changes. For instance, primary

markets are active for 1 to 3 years, while secular trends do for 1 to 3 decades;

intermediate trends last for several weeks, and long-term trends can be

unpredictable in terms of duration.

Besides, you have to understand a potential buyer. Maybe you belong to this

category, too, so it will be easier to see a picture. But in any case, you’ll have to

cope with a lot of analytical data. Explore native market and find out whether similar

products exist there or not, whether people need or like them, whether they are ready

to pay money for these products, or will tend to find an alternative.

The easiest way to find out what will be sold successfully in Nigeria is to analyze the

statistics – which items are searched most often in Google and other searching

systems. You can also choose another way. The more popular an item is, the more

people will be trying to sell it. If you can offer something completely new, try it. Both

variants can be a risky business, and both can grow into a real business. Everything

depends only on you.

Step 2. Buy stuff

After you have decided what to sell, you should find the place where to buy it. Well,

we’ve already mentioned Amazon and AliExpress , and these two sources will be the

best options. Searching what you need there is quite easy: type in a special line at

the top of home page or choose a proper category and look through the suggested

results. You will be offered several (or rather numerous) filters in order to specify the

search.

Speaking about delivery, you should find out everything about terms and conditions,

for your business affairs, which are dependent on it completely. Remember that

shipping to places outside the US does not mean getting desired items only, but

being a subject to taxes and customs duties.

If we speak about Amazon, you will have to deal with “Import Fee Deposit”, which

may vary depending on an order. For technology, some warrants may not be valid,

and instructions sometimes aren’t translated into your native language. The price of

international shipping isn’t fixed, it varies by item, shipment and shipping option.

Nevertheless, with free AmazonGlobal shipping you can receive or send everything

free of charge. In general, the list of delivery options and estimated delivery date

always differ. Everything depends on a variety of factors, such as product’s weight,

size, delivery address etc. You can receive a package directly to your home, business

address, or Pickup Point. Meanwhile, you can track your parcel. Your order can be

delivered in parts, carried by several couriers, delivered faster in case you indicate it

etc.

You can receive your precious things in Nigeria during 2-8 days paying $3.99 / $4.99

per item and $21.99 per delivery.

AliExpress, in its turn, offers a wide range of shipping solutions, which are in most

cases set up by the suppliers. Some orders incur additional custom charges and

import duties, which can be checked before ordering. Shipping costs are set up by

suppliers and, consequently, depend on a particular country.

The fastest delivery lasts for 3 to 7 days and is more expensive, while the longest

estimated delivery time equals to 15-26 days or even longer on holidays and

sometimes is even free. Luckily for users, they can choose different options in order

to get items more quickly or find lower prices. Moreover, you can always contact a

supplier for more information. Actually, it is the best way to find out exact terms, for

every country and every supplier works a bit differently.

Step 3. Sell stuff

When you take a minute to think about everything above mentioned, it doesn’t seem

that obscure anymore. And the process of selling things is even easier than buying.

First of all, you can be 99% sure that the number of potential buyers will be quite

big. The reason is simple: you are the only (or one of a few) in the entire country

who sells stuff they were looking for.

Some may be worried with a question: why wouldn’t those people buy everything on

Amazon or AliExpress just like you? There are several reasons. First of all, buying

from familiar websites functioning in your own country always seems more secure.

Secondly, it is much easier. Thirdly, it is much quicker.

All they need is to open good old Jiji.ng – the biggest Nigerian classifieds website,

their favorite place for shopping.