Launching a startup in Nigeria? Here are 8 important things you need to do.

1. Do some research and validate your idea: Talk to your ideal users and find out what your competitors are doing to get a better idea of what opportunities exist and what you may have missed out and define your market.
2. Set goals: Always think of the business side of things. You’re not doing this for fun. Times are hard, you’re in Nigeria not Silicon Valley. You have to make profit as quickly as possible. If you can’t make profit, what are you doing it for?
3. Don’t hire if you don’t need to: You have a tight budget. If you need people to work with, try to convince them to see the big picture.. If they are interested, they may be willing to work for free.
4. Always think about the user: Always have your product in the hands of the users you’re building for. Are you building a fintech product for stores? Go to the mall and get it in the hands of the store owners, ask them what they need.
5. Create a landing page: Create a web page to pass the message across. Make sure it’s as clear as possible.
6. Get active on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat? You don’t have to join all of them — focus on where your users are. Also chat forums and communities are also a good idea. (TIP: You DO NOT have to focus on only Nigeria-focused websites). Get on ProductHunt, Reddit etc.)
7. Hire a marketer: If you do not have chops for all the publicity, hire someone to do it for you. Always remember to outsource. You can’t do everything yourself.
8. Track your progress: Always focus on how people are using your product and iterate based on the feedback you get. If you have built an MVP for a web product, have some form of analytics installed to see how people engage your product.

There are obviously a lot of things involve that we may have missed; Networking, Great customer service, SEO. We are aware. But start with these and build your way up.