Why Are Nigerians So Selfish When It Comes To Sharing Business Ideas

This platform as at today receives about seven thousand visitors everyday. These seven thousand persons read about forty thousand pages of articles on this website on daily basis. Yet, they would never assist others to answer their questions, instead, they would add their own questions and expects only me to answer all, including asking me to go out there and get information on where to buy tools for their businesses?

There are thousands of questions on this website that has remained unanswered. People who knows the answers sees them everyday, yet, they won’t be moved to share their ideas and knowledge by answering those questions. So, why are Nigerians so selfish about sharing business ideas and knowledge?

Pro Consultant Asked on July 29, 2016 in Marketing.

I am not surprise on this topic. Many information marketers are not ready to give out free information. Before I go further, let me introduce my self here. GBENGA KOLAWOLE is my name. I own gydezhost.com/host  for cheap hosting and domain names plus ideas on how to get better services from the site. Some yrs back, precisely 2006 I wrote on this topic (but in another phrases) in one of my blogs, moneycanbuyall.blogspot.com.  That IM cannot give out free software, instead you have to  paid before you can get  any information from them. Left for me, there is no information too secret to give out free of charge. As long as God’s blessing is there for me in sharing. So it is good to share business ideas so that people will be more enlightened and your business will grow as well.   Lastly I want to appreciate CEO Darlinton Omeh for sharing free business ideas here. God bless you real good. amen

on August 1, 2016.
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6 Answer(s)

They believe when they share their idea with you they will have a competition by so doing they won’t make the kind of money they suppose to be making.

New Member Answered on July 29, 2016.
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Even some will go extra length by giving you wrong suggestions. Simply, they don’t want competition.

New Member Answered on August 3, 2016.
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I do not quite agree that Nigerians are selfish to give out business ideas. I think it borders on whether they have what is worth giving out in the first place plus the poor mentality of negative business competition.

The different between the rich and the people is basically the ability to think and come up with great ideas. This come as a result of building oneself personal capability. Somebody who does not have that can definitely not share ideas he does not have. Now, the few that have such ideas may be afraid of selling out their ideas to somebody with more resources than themselves. To me, it is an issue for personal preference. For instance, if I had spent time and  money to research and gather some information for the purpose of selling, do you expect me to give out everything free? However, if I am sharing information for fun or just for the hobby, I can go extra mile especially if it is helping someone out the. Information marketers have a way to balance the mix.

Concerning your question, don’t forget that the economy is hitting hard on some Nigerians and as such they cannot afford to spend extra money or data researching information for the benefit of others. Generally, I do not belief that Nigerians are selfish with respect to sharing business information rather many lack the capacity to provide relevant answers.

Another reason many don’t get response for their question is because they are not as specific as they should with what they ask. Asking for something super generic or broad creates work for them. I’m a digital marketing expert, and I often gets asked for online marketing advice from entrepreneurs. Compare these two questions:

1. “My startup is an accounting software product for marketers. What should my marketing strategy be?”

2. “My startup is an accounting software product for marketers of financial institutions to help them capture more leads. It costs $50/month to start. I’m trying to decide between content marketing and paid acquisition as a channel. What do you think the pros/cons of those two channels would be in my case?”

Question one requires me to do a bunch of work. I needs to check out what the company does more specifically, look at their pricing, think about their target market, and then think about an entire marketing strategy!

The second question is much more specific and something I can respond to almost immediately. With a small tweak, the recipient is more likely to get a response and a more insightful and targeted answer.

The Lesson: Do some research and be specific with your question.

Active Member Answered on August 5, 2016.
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I still want to add a little tip. The reason many questions go unanswered is because most of the questions are too generic. Asking for something super generic or broad creates work for those who will like to answer. Take for example the following two questions.

1 “My startup is an accounting product for marketers. What should my marketing strategy be?”

2. “My startup is an accounting product for marketers of financial institutions to help them capture more leads. It costs $50/month to start. I’m trying to decide between content marketing and paid acquisition as a channel. What do you think the pros/cons of those two channels would be in my case?”

Question one requires me to do a bunch of work. I needs to check out what the company does more specifically, look at their pricing, think about their target market, and then think about an entire marketing strategy!

The second question is much more specific and something I can respond to almost immediately. With a small tweak, the recipient is more likely to get a response and a more insightful and targeted answer.

The lesson: before you ask any question, do some research and get specific!

Active Member Answered on August 5, 2016.

Your answer is perfect. It becomes too difficult to answer when a question is too broad or when a question demand lots of research work.

It doesn’t help either when a question literally put someone on a hot seat.  Question such as “How many bags of rice can I harvest from 20 acres of farmland” puts potential respondents on hot seat. If you provide a specific figure, you will be held responsible (so to say) if anything goes wrong and the numbers were not meet.

So, people should be specific and reasonable in the kind of questions they ask if they ever hope to get responsible, sincere, practical answers.

on August 5, 2016.
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Hello, I have being following your response in the palm oil business in Nigeria, however as a student in the UK I want to start up a oil crude factory in Bayelsa State Nigeria. Have acquired machines from China to improve the business in Nigeria, as I have done my research in Nigeria and found out that majority of companies that are investing in this business use a certain type of machine. But however as a research student I decided to take more step forward. However I am happy to have welcome investors that will be interested about my factory to buy share in the company ‘Eazzycook oil’

New Member Answered on August 10, 2016.
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ManlikeBen, pls create a question for your concern separately. Asking questions under another question won’t get an answer. Thank you

Pro Consultant Answered on August 17, 2016.
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