How to Run a Profitable Cyber Cafe Business in Nigeria

Running a Cyber business can be very challenging. I wrote this post on my personal blog sometime ago, but decided to re-post edited version following various questions on running a profitable cyber cafe business in Nigeria.

A lady sent this to me

My hubby and i opened a cyber, its 6 months down the line and it has not payed back. 1st the we got ISP that was not efficient, so we had to change to another, which means more money from our pockets, after a month or two, the internet started going on off atleast every week,( during the day its not that fast but in the evening its fast.) so when its slow during the day we loose alot coz thats when we have more customers, then the switch got spoilt bcoz of on off of electricity, then the printers followed, they either print faintly or not printing at all. am feeling frustrated but i dont want the frustration to get over me, my hubby invested alot on the cyber and its really bad if it doesnt pay back. what advice can you give us?
by the way our cyber assistant is very honest and hardworking,he handles the customers pretty well. i cant complain about him, the site is also good, its just by the road so it attracts lots of customers, but wen they come and find low or no internet or printer not working they shun away. i have not found a good printer technician yet, i feel very harrased. pls advice.

There are various reasons why most cyber cafe fail to make profits, they include:
- No diversification
- High Cost of Operation
- Maintenance
- Poor Internet Service

Running Cyber business requires a lot of things, in other to overcome numerous challenges Cyber business pose you have to take some action;

1) Diversification: Diversify the services you offer, let it not be just selling of tickets and browsing alone. Start offering services like Typesetting, E-registration (help people register for event, apply for jobs etc), Photocopying, Lamination, Binding(Spiral Binding) ICT Trainings (training on use of MS Word, Excel, Corel Draw, Use of Internet etc) and Eatery (Small fast food section) this I believe will help you cope with the poor internet service and create more revenue streams.

2) Avoid Power Problem: Get good power regulating devices like Stabilizers, UPS etc this will help protect you from power surges etc. Furthermore, get a good power generating set that will serve you incase of power failure.

3) Avoid Procastination: Fix any problem you notice in any of your gadgets, don’t postpone it!

4) Minimize Maintenance Cost: Go learn some maintenance courses/techniques so that you can fix little problems without going to the experts.

5) Get Good and Cost effective ISP: If possible look for ISP that charges you according to your volume/usage instead of a fixed monthly charge.

6) Have a Backup internet service: Gone are the days you rely only on one service provider. With cost of internet service, you can afford to have two or more service providers to ensure maximum up-time.