Speaking in Lagos at a forum organsied by Sage for Entrepreneurs entitled: ‘’Future-proof Your Business’’, the Chief Executive Officer of Metro Africa Xpress (MAX), Adetayo Bamiduro, argued that business owners needed to think outside the box to identify the hidden prospects.
He noted that the trend called for economic diversification, with focus on agriculture among others, rather than depending solely on petroleum products.
“It is time for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to utilise this period well by being more productive than ever, as the economy is now in a downturn.
“This is the best time for business owners to reposition their products in order to lead Nigeria out of the present economic position and also to earn more for themselves,’’ he said.
He added that Nigeria was plunged into this state due to investment only in oil and gas, and noted that it was high time for technology users and every other business created solutions to promote their products to relief the country fast.
Bamiduro charged entrepreneurs to stop lamenting but key into the opportunities in the recession, like changing former ways of doing their business, to the trend at which the economy is going to remain in the labour market and also not lose customers’ interests in their products.
He however pleaded with business owners to exercise more patience and remember that tough times don’t last forever, “but we need to work hard because hard work remains forever. The economic downturn will soon be over; it just requires patience and hard work and seeing opportunities beyond oil and gas sectors alone.”
Also speaking, the Regional Director West Africa, Sage, Magnus Nmonwu, said the forum was targeted toward making Nigerian entrepreneurs to become the major drivers of the nation’s economic development and also to future-proof their business. It is also to show how they can leapfrog the competition into the next five years, and to achieve this, business owners have to get use to trends in the technologies sector that will enable them grow their business.
He said with technology, business owners necessarily do not need to be in the office all the time to be able to get information needed to make certain decisions, which is one of the provisions made available by Sage.
He added it time for both young and aspiring entrepreneurs to see the need to promote the usage of technology in order to help bring the country out of recession.
“Sage will be at the forefront of promoting technology to enhance easy accessibility for business owners in the country, with Sage 300, Sage 50 Africa, Sage Evolution and Sage HR and Payroll solutions. Three of the software is for accounting – various versions, they cut across different stages of the company’s life and also the Sage HR and Pro solutions,” he said.
The Sales Director, Human Resources and Payroll at Sage; Gerhard Hartman, said for Nigeria to survive this present tough time business owners need to identify their mission for doing the business and ready to give all it take to sustain it.He added technology advance each day, there is need to move along with the trend and do more of research of what some entrepreneur do better than you and be ready to improve.
