HOTTEST 10 BUSINESS YOU CAN DO ON THE NYSC ORIENTATION CAMP
As the new batch is preparing for
camp, what are your plans? Are you among them, or are you already a Corper in
service? Have you ever reflected on the vast opportunities that the thrice-yearly
orientation camp could hold?
With my experience as a Corper,
in addition to research, I have decided to share this information with you.
This report is not meant to make you a billionaire overnight. But, with the
little returns you make, you can start some bigger business after camp. Below
are the 10 best business areas you can engage in as a Corper. Some of these
businesses would require registration and licensing by the camp authorities,
depending on how you want to go about it. So, read through the list carefully
and chose a niche that best suits you.
- BARBING/ NAIL
FIXING SALON: You can operate a haircut biz in camp. During the 3weeks
orientation, guys would love to shave their beards and trim their hair. Usually,
electric items like hair clipper, electric iron, among other items, are
never allowed into the camp; such belongings are often collected at the
gate before entry. So, you would never be disappointed as there shall
always be a long queue of Corpers waiting to have a hair cut.
You can also
operate a nail fixing business for the ladies who would always want to pimp
their looks. In fact, the number of your clients would be growing daily.
Special tips:
Ø
A clipper would be enough, unless you have a
partner.
Ø
You’ll need a small generator
Ø
Have another person around who is good at fixing
nails
Ø
And of course, you have to be good with the
clipper.
- SELLING FOOD
AND SOFT DRINKS: NYSC provides food 3 times a day to Corpers. But,
upon that, there are some who would find it difficult not eating more,
especially after the rigors of parade and other camp activities. Besides,
there are some guys who do not find it welcoming to follow others on the
queue for Camp food; they prefer patronizing the MAMI market for their meals.
You can capitalize on this. Moreover, the MAMI market is always a beehive
of social activities in the evenings. Guys and ladies get hooked up a lot
on camp; mami market serves as a dating centre. To have an advantage over
others in the market, take note of these special tips:
Special tips
Ø
Ensure that your stand is clean.
Ø
Make sure your meals are quite tasty
Ø
Have a generator and a refrigerator around to
ensure that your drinks are cold. However,
you can still operate without owning a refrigerator. Just arrange with a cool
room or refrigerator owner close to camp. For a fee, you can have your drinks
cooled for you. Also, you can keep your drinks quite cold by putting them in a
cooler with ice blocks.
Ø
You can specialize on continental dishes, or local
dishes. For a treat, you can let them have a taste of the award winning Ibibio/Efik
delicacies – afang soup, edikang ikong soup, and ekpangnkukwo.
With these in place, you would be
quite amazed at the number of people flocking your booth. Just have some
waiters around.
- PHOTOGRAPHY:
With the thousands of Corpers on camp,
engaging in different activities, for a whole 3 weeks, you can just
imagine how much you can make from this business. There would be other
photographers on camp, but, you would never lose; Corpers need for
photographs could be insatiable. They would be taking shots till even a
minute to leaving camp. As a Corper, you can prepare for this biz by going
to camp with your digital camera, and photo papers. You can even buy a
digital photo printer; you can still use it after camp to print pictures
at your place of primary assignment. During camp activities, you would not
be allowed in the mami market, but you can liaise with the registered
photographers on camp to print the pictures for you with some
compensation.
- VIDEO
COVERAGE: As a prospective Corper, you may find this area a bit
difficult, unless you are a smart one who can find his way through. However,
you can always go back for it, when a new batch arrives. Corp members
would love to have their activities on record. With
a good video camcorder, you are expected to cover all camp activities,
there after, edit the whole stuff and burn it to DVD for Corpers to buy
and take home after the Orientation exercise. All you do is to cover the
major events and spectacular scenes. Be on ground with your camera when
they are on queue for registration, food, and mountaineering and during
the endurance trek. Those are the instances you can capture almost all
Corpers on camp. To make it easier for you, you can have as many Corps members
register with you, possibly with an initial deposit of some amount; give
them identifying tags for them to wear so you would be able to recognize
them during filming. It would even make sense to go to camp with a TV and
DVD player. Corp members who see themselves on the screen would become
very interested for a DVD from you.
- LAUNDRY
SERVICES: For a variety of reasons, there are some who find it hard to
wash their clothes, and would be too glad to find someone who can wash for
them even at an exorbitant fee. You can tap into this and make quite a
fortune by opening a laundry stand. You can help to wash corpers’ khaki,
T-shirts, socks, and boots for a certain fee.
Very few Corpers
do go to camp with electric iron. Even at that, depending on the Camp, such
items, as earlier mentioned, are normally confiscated at the gate by the
security personnel during entry. As a result, Corpers would resort to
patronizing the few laundry stands on Camp. You can combine washing and
ironing, or more so, set up an exclusive ironing biz with the use of charcoal
iron. I remember when I was on camp, I used to pay N50.00 for every item to be
ironed; for my trouser, jacket and T-shirt, I paid N100.00. It sounds too small
a fee, right? But, with the thousands of Corpers on camp who would want their
kits to be ironed on daily basis, you can calculate the amount of money you can
make. For ease of operation, follow these tips.
Special tips:
Ø
Label every shirt,
khaki or jungle boot received with the Corper's unique State code, so
that when the owner comes back to claim his/her khaki, you will find it very
easy to locate it without any mix-up with other khakis that are with you.
Ø
Have 1 or more partners for this business: Never
attempt it alone because you can have over 300 kits
on ground to be washed and ironed in a day. Corpers will be mad at you if you
tell them that their kits are not ready when they are suppose to wear it to the
parade ground the next morning.
Ø
Have a division of
labour among yourselves (partners). While one of of you is washing, one shoud
be ironing, another could be on the field, marketing and going from one hostel
to another, packing dirty kits to the stand.
- TAILORING SERVICES: You can also make money on camp helping
Corpers to fix their wears. Most times, Corpers are given kits that are
too large for them. As such, they would love to have the kits adjusted to
their size. Other than doing adjustments, you can be sewing new caps for
them, to replace the ill-shaped caps that are usually issued on camp. During
exercises, shorts do tear. You just patch up the tear for a fee. Never
underestimate this venture. You do not need to be a professional tailor.
Just knowing how to maneuver the sewing machine is enough.
Special tips:
Ø
Have a sewing
machine ready
Ø
Have some pieces of
Khaki material handy for patch works and sewing of new caps.
Ø
You can even go with
some pre-sewed caps. With these, all you have to do would be to just attach the
NYSC logo within a few minute, without your customer (Corper) having to wait
long.
Ø
Always tag your
customers’ kits with their State Code respectively for easy identification and
collection.
- BOOK SELLING: You
can also make money by selling
books, magazines, novels, newspapers and musical CDs. All you have to do
is to just have some good books ready. Have some good romantic novels as well;
this would sure attract the ladies. You can make quite a hit if you have
current sports magazines and papers available. You can embark on this
business even as a camping Corper. Just endeavor to sell your books at an
affordable rate, and you would see them rushing for your books.
- PROVISION
SHOP: You can open a booth, stock it with toilet soaps, medicated
soaps, antiseptics(Dettol, TCP, etc), body lotions, creams, powders, hair
relaxer, hair pomades, exotic body sprays, etc. these products are always on
the demand, they are not perishable and you can always go back to camp
when a new batch comes in. As a Corper, you can do this without a need to
open a booth. Simply go round the hostels and introduce your products, you
would never fail to have customers. When I was in camp, a roommate of mine
used to go round selling body sprays. The guy sold off the stock before
leaving camp. You can do same.
- CALL CENTRE,
PHONE CHARGING AND REPAIRS: I tell you, never underestimate this
venture: it is a veritable oil well on its entirety. With the limited
electricity supply in some of our orientation camps, you can make quite a
fortune by simply charging phones and batteries for Corps members. In
addition, people have an insatiable need to communicate daily, recharge cards
are always on the demand. Why not tap into this oil well? You would never
lose from selling recharge cards on camp because it is always on the
demand. In addition, you can operate a call centre. There would be serious
competition but there is no way you will not get your own share of the
market and be smiling back home with your pockets bulging.
Tips:
Ø
You will need to
have a small generator around.
Ø
Have enough desktop
chargers available.
Ø
Like in laundry, you
have to tag each phone and battery with each the Corper’s State Code to avoid
mix up.
- BOUTIQUE: Are
you wondering how you can manage a boutique on camp? Hey, you do not need
to open “Frankfik International” or more so a “Baguta”. Just a booth that has a good stock
of men’s superior quality T-shirts, singlets, and boxer shorts. Most
importantly, you can consider having ladies things – panties, tights,
knickers, bum shorts, designer bras, sanitary pads and towels. After all,
they make up the greater customer community.
Special tips:
Ø
Just make sure your
goods are of superior quality. Selling substandard products would make them
scurrying away to other marketers around.
Ø
Avoid the temptation
of raising your prices, even if you are the only one selling.
These
are the hot 10 business ideas that
you can engage in during the 3 weeks Orientation Camp exercise. Other areas
include operating a match viewing centre; configuring free browsers for Corpers;
games centre; and photocopying/ lamination services.
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