The sale of akara also known as ‘bean cake’ is something anybody can start without any prior business knowledge and it can generate quite a huge sum of money.
All you need to start akara business is the will, a little cash and basic understanding of how to make the akara to be tasty so that people can keep patronising you.
However, just like many businesses be if capital intensive or cheap, there are things you first need to get and understand.
CAPITAL FOR AKARA BUSINESS
The capital you need to start an akara business is of low cost and this is why the business is mostly chosen by people who have little money but are looking to make money daily through legitimate means.
Be a you an uneducated, semi-literate, school dropout or graduate, the sale of akara is a honourable business that is guaranteed to give you daily income.
Someone with N5,000 to N20,000 can start a successful akara business in Nigeria. and it all depends on the equipment you have, wish to buy and the volume of akara you wish to produce weekly.
STRATEGIC LOCATION
To have a successful akara business, you must be very strategic with the location you choose. Most people who share testimonials about how profitable it turned out to be were those who located their stand at marketplaces, in low income residential neighbourhoods, and close to office areas, particularly the offices that have a lot of non-skilled workers
PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT
You cannot start selling akara if you do not have the necessary equipment. There are a number of them, some of which you already have at home, so you may not have to start buying everything from scratch.
See a list of the equipment you will need:
Gas cooker or firewood
Frying pan
Big frying spoon with holes
Bowls
Small spoon whose scooping part is shaped like a concave and deep
Tray
Fork
Table
Bench
Mortar and pestle or Grinder
Sieve
Papers
Umbrella
INGREDIENTS
Ingredients simply refers to the food items you use to make up the akara that is prepared for customers consumption.
For you to make akara balls that people often rush to buy, you will need:
Beans (This is basically what akara is made of and without beans, you cannot prepare it)
Vegetable oil
Salt
Crayfish
Seasoning cubes
Onions
Pepper
STEPS TO MAKE AKARA
Making akara is not hard so long as you follow the easy steps below:
Select beans, sieve out the stones and chaff
Peel beans till all the coats are off or soak it in water for sometime. Allow the beans to absorb the water and swell for the coat to peel off easily
Clean the pepper, onions and mix them with the beans and crayfish
Grind the peeled beans, pepper, onions, and crayfish altogether.
(To blend or grind it, you will need a pestle and mortar or you can take it to a local grinder if you don’t have the machine.)
Add seasoning cubes, salt, and other flavours to grinded beans and stir well.
Get your vegetable/groundnut oil heat it up.
When it’s very hot, start pouring the blended beans in the hot oil using the concave spoon.
Wait till akara forms into a ball and changes colour to red then turn it over to the other side
When they are well fried, use the big spoon with holes and sieve akara from hot vegetable oil
Now you can start selling to eager buyers
SIDE SNACKS
What’s better than eating akara? Eating it with an accompaniment. Many akara sellers combine the sale of their bean cakes with side snacks which include pap, fried yam, fried potato or plantain. Also, some akara seller buy small loaves of bread and put it on their stand for customers to buy and eat at the spot or take home, so you don’t have to visit a kiosk.
TIME OF SALE
A very important part of why akara business is booming has to do with the timing. It is advisable to make and sell the akara very early in the morning, as people are looking for a quic snack to eat before going to work.
Also, the business maes huge profit of yo sell in the evening, around the time workers are leaving their various jobs and heading home. After an exhausting day, people would want to buy something they can take home to eat in a jiffy before they start preparing their night meals.
Akara business is very profitable with consistency. Customers buy for as low as N50 and as much as N200. So let’s say 30 people buy 100 naira worth of akara and 20 people buy N200 worth of akara, you are making N7,000 every day.
While you can start the business with N5,000, you stand to make up to N7,000 every day with a profit of about N2,000 or more. So at the end of the month, you will be taking N210,000 to the bank.
Although akara business is not often done by people who think they deserve a career in the blue chip firms or white collar offices, it is available to the average man or woman with alittle cash or education and they can make more money than an office manager.
We have provided the guidelines on how to start making and selling akara, with an idea of how much you can make, so what are you waiting for. Start an akara business today.
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