By Jaclyn IWU
FRIDAY 5 AUGUST 2016-In most business coaching meetings/forums i have conducted, this particular aspect of my talk has always been very controversial. In my observations and years of experience in empowering job seekers and helping them to start their own business, the first thing job seekers will complain about is not having money/capital to start a business. This particular aspect of starting a career/business is always a dicey topic to discuss and only mature minds can understand how having a good skill or no capital can transform into a business.
Again it is also a very hot area to push across especially when everyone jobless in this country is looking for fast money and no job seeker will admit to have any money with him or her. It baffles me all the time when i meet job seekers who live above their means but yet complain of not having any job. This immediately opens a picture of who you are because the money you use to live like someone with endless resources can be saved and invest into opening a good business of yours.
Now coming back to a job seeker who wants to open a business and what is more vital to start that business of his/her choice. Talk and explain all the strategies of growing a business and at the end of the talk , you never mentioned about the financial capital as the first thing to have when starting a business, that meeting will seem like pouring water inside a basket to most job seekers listening to your talk. I also discovered that most job seekers who have this mind set are those who are looking for easy and fast money and not willing to work hard and wait for their business to mature before having greed for huge profits.
Job seekers hate business experts who insist that Nigerian youths of today are not fit to be employed. Former Minister of Finance in the past Governement once said this but the job seekers never understood what she meant. The truth only sink in to job seekers who take time to find out exactly what those who see Nigerian graduates as not qualified to be employed in the Nigerian economic setting saw. Most Nigerian job seekers who are graduates are not employable simply means that they have no skills for jobs they can do in Nigeria to earn a living. A graduate with first class will be looking for a front desk job/PR/Communication job position but knows nothing about how to use the computer to even type letters using microsoft word. Knowing how to navigate on facebook and other social media is totally different from office computer skills. Most job seekers can manage social media stuff but put them in the office setting with a computer for official duties, you will be disappointed how ignorant they are with computer applications.
Meanwhile, we have ICT training institutes shouting day and night for youths to come and learn computer application skills, but these job seekers see them as waste of time. Life and business coaches will advertise for business and career coaching seminars and forums but job seekers will want it to be free of charge. Meanwhile they spend more than seminar fees on data to chat on dating sites.
For those who want to start trading business, most of them do not know how to do a business survey/plan before starting a business. They cannot explain the selling/marketing strategies they will need to make profits and grow their business, the ripe environment where they can establish their trade.
Most job seekers focus on money to start business. I have said it over and over here that money cannot be a problem for a job seeker who understand what it means to run a business. This does not mean you do not need money but it is not the major ingredient to start a business. Most job seekers who go out to borrow money to start a business always get stuck in the middle of their transactions because of lack of business skills and marketing strategies.
For you to be gainfully employed both in the private and public sector of the labour market, you must have to explore and sharpen your talents and skills. This will enable you to be quite sure and accurate about the kind of business and career to pursue in life.
I have met women who run into some good cash and went to open catering outfit, hair dressing salon and could hardly manage /operate well. After few months, they closed up and became jobless again. This is not because they never had customers….they failed because, they did not learn about skills and management of restaurants and hairdressing. They employed people whom they were not even sure had the skills of the business because they, themselves do not know also. How can you open a hair dressing salon but know nothing about hair styles, hair products and at least how to wash hair? How can you sustain such business? Now in this situation, is it the capital to open the business or the skills acquisition that is vital to grow your business? If you love the hair dressing business, you must first acquire the skills to make hair so that when you open an outlet, you will run it successfully. You cannot first be running around for capital to buy dryers, rent a shop when you have not acquired the hair dressing skills. If you learn the skills first, you can start by working for someone for a short time and if you are focused and prudent, you will be able to save money to start your own salon.
Unless job seekers in this country understand the powers of attending business seminars ,acquiring skills , the unemployment rate in this country will continue to soar. Waiting for already made jobs that will push salaries into their pockets at the end of the month are hard to find so any job seeker without skills will have to wait for a long time to become gainfully employed.
The talk about the present Government giving all unemployed people 5000 Niara is not enough to push unemployment away. The Government should establish free skills acquisition centers for job seekers who are willing to be useful to themselves.
The Government should take a second look at colleges of technology and ban this silly idea that a university graduate is better than a graduate from a college of technology. Leave a message on Twitter-@jacquiworld ..if you want to attend our upcoming –‘Business skills sharpening’ forums in abuja. Let us also talk about the 5000 naira grant to unemployed youths in Nigeria. Will it help?
Jaclyn IWU is a Life/Business/Career Coach A Stress Management Expert &Conference Speaker, Media Communication Personnel. FACEBOOK: Beautifulwoman.column.TWITTER:@Jacquiworld. BLOG:bluntjacqui.blogspot.com
