MBA1365 Q&A Wednesday: I can’t find a payment processor for a Nigeria-based business. Help?

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Hey O. Welcome to the $1 show business lessons you can count on every day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online and today's episode is a Q and a Wednesday episode. On our Q and A Wednesday episodes I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over@omarr.net Today's question is from Faisal and Faisal asks. I live in Russia but my business is based in Nigeria. I can't find a payment processor to process my invoices with my business based in Nigeria. Can you help? That's a very good question and a challenge that not only people from Nigeria or people that have businesses in Nigeria are dealing with. Many countries have this problem. If you live in the west, you may not be aware of this, but there are a lot of countries out there that have difficulty accepting payments online. It's a huge blocker for them from starting and running a business. So today I'm going to give my advice to Faisal what he should do, how to solve this problem. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Faisal asks a very important question. His business is based in Nigeria and he's having a hard time finding a payment processor to process his invoices for his business with his business based there. Like I mentioned at the top of the episode, this is a common problem for many people in many countries. Banking and payment processing and all that kind of stuff is not that straightforward in many countries around the world. So what does Faisal do? How does he accept payment? How does he run his business? Faisal, my answer to you is not a direct, hey, here's a payment processor that works in Nigeria. And it's for a couple reasons. You've done a lot of homework, just like I have, and there aren't any, really, that are reliable and are cost effective. The second reason, and the most important reason why I'm not going to give that kind of answer is because it doesn't really solve the problem. It's just one problem solved. You're going to face other problems with your business based out of Nigeria. So what do you do? Well, luckily there is a solution, actually a very good solution to solve many of your business problems when you're based in countries that don't make it easy for you to run your business. A few years ago, I learned about Estonia's E residency. I actually met one of Estonia's representatives at a conference called Running Remote a couple years ago. It was actually less than two years ago. It was about 16 months ago. So this is a fairly new thing. So what is an E Residency from Estonia? Well, it allows you to start an EU business. Estonia is in the EU and allows you to operate and run a business remotely from anywhere in the world. Basically, it allows you to set up a European business in Estonia with a tax ID and everything. That means you can open up a European bank account in Estonia. You can accept payments just as if you were in Europe. Your business would legally be a European business. And everything could get set up from your laptop from anywhere in the world, and they can send you everything via mail. Now, let me be clear. This is not an actual residency in the country. You can't live in Estonia with this E residency. It just allows you to operate remotely as a company based in Estonia. Now, for most people, that's perfectly fine. They're okay with that. They actually prefer to live wherever they live, but they can operate their business as if they're in Europe. You receive a digital id, you set up your business bank account, you establish your company, you actually get a business ID for tax purposes and that's it, you're all set up. You actually just apply online. This application is actually quite affordable. It's only €100. Very reasonable. They then recommend a service provider to help you establish your company. Their fee is about €100. Then you actually register your company in Estonia and that service provider will walk you through that. That fee for the government is €190. You apply for a business bank account once you have your business in Estonia and usually minimal fees are applied there. So all up, you're looking at €400 to have a European business, that's incredible in my book. And think about all the roadblocks that get lifted then. Now, I don't know all the details. I encourage you to check out their website. It's e-residency.govee all the information is there, how to apply, everything. The website is extremely helpful. They give you step by step instructions, they give you helpful videos and it's very straightforward. Now, from what I understand, because this is not an actual visa to allow you to live in the country, the process is quite fast. And if you're an upstanding person and citizen in your country, there's no real friction to being approved. Now this is an actual business in Estonia, so you would have a real business registered in Estonia. That means you gotta pay Estonian taxes. Now you gotta look into the tax rate, but from my understanding, it's very reasonable. You have to pay taxes with your business anyway, wherever you are based. But if your business is based in Estonia, you're gonna be able to make so much more money because the opportunities and the doors will be open given that you have an EU business. I can't remember the exact tax rate. You're have to look into that, but I remember when I was told, I was like, wow, that's pretty reasonable given all these incentives. So my advice to you, Faisal, and everybody who's listening that's in a similar situation, is to get an E residency in Estonia because you're going to be able to have so many more options, competitive options with payment processors, with banking, with finance, with so much more. Given your business is Estonian, is in the eu and you're not gonna have to deal with the resistance and the friction you're dealing with right now with a business based in Nigeria. It's unfortunate that it's that way. I'm actually of the opinion that that's just not fair. You know, I don't really think people that come from certain countries should suffer or be hindered from their success in business. This is why I think this E residency from Estonia is incredible. This is game changing and very smart of the government of Estonia to offer it to others.

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To wrap up today's lesson. Operating a business out of the EU is probably one of the best options for many people around the world because of the doors it's going to open for you because of the options that are going to be afforded to you because of legally, financially and even the perception your business has on others. As much as we don't want that to be the truth, it's the reality. If you run a business out of a country other than the us, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the UK or Europe, then there's a pretty good chance that you can benefit from having a company operated out of Europe instead of your other home country. If you don't have a business running out of the us, Canada, the uk, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, there's a good chance you can really benefit from starting your business and having a business operate out of Europe with Estonia. That website again is e-resident.govee thanks for the question Faisal, and thanks for listening to the $100 MBA show. If you have a question you want me to answer right here on the show, just email me over@omar mba.net Before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you're a digital nomad and you want a business that operates totally online, then the E residency is actually a very good option. Check it out and see if it's a good fit for your needs. It has minimal costs and hassle free administration. I'm actually pretty blown away that this now exists, breaking down the barriers and making online business accessible to everyone around the world. Thank you so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode.

I'll see you then.

Take care.

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