By Abigail Mbah
How Jennifer Jonathan is developing Business Solution Marketplace to change the way small businesses find, procure and manage professional services
A small business does not need to employ a web developer to build a website. It may not need a full-time brand strategist to reposition its business, an accountant to solve a specific financial challenge, or a marketing team to launch a single campaign.
What it needs is access to the right expertise at the right time.
That sounds simple. In practice, finding the right person, establishing trust, defining the work and managing the engagement can be difficult particularly for small businesses operating with limited resources.
This is the problem Nigerian entrepreneur Jennifer Jonathan is building around with Business Solution Marketplace (BSM), a structured digital marketplace designed to help SMEs access professional expertise and business solutions when they need them.
Moving beyond the traditional freelancer model
For many small businesses, hiring full-time employees for every capability they require is neither practical nor necessary. Project-based access to specialised expertise can allow businesses to bring in the skills they need without building an entire team around them.
BSM is built around this reality.
Rather than simply helping businesses find individual freelancers, the platform organises professional services around the business problem that needs to be solved from strategy and branding to technology, marketing, operations, finance and other business needs.
The idea is to make the process more structured: businesses can identify what they need, find relevant expertise and engage professionals through a platform designed around business-service delivery.
The business problem comes first. The individual professional comes second.
Trust starts before the transaction
One of the challenges in any professional-services marketplace is knowing whether the person on the other side can actually deliver.
BSM addresses this through a structured expert recruitment and verification process. Professionals go through screening before being presented as part of the platform’s expert network, creating an additional layer of quality assurance for businesses looking for support.
For Jennifer, this is an important part of the product itself.
The proposition is not simply to put more professionals online. It is to create a more organised environment in which businesses can access expertise with greater confidence.
Building the product around how SMEs actually work
Jennifer’s approach to BSM has involved more than creating a website and listing service providers.
The platform’s development began with customer discovery and research into how SMEs source professional services. Those insights informed its service categories, user journeys, workflows and product requirements.
That thinking has shaped the platform through multiple stages of development, from its initial marketplace to subsequent improvements in its functionality and user experience.
It reflects a broader product philosophy: technology should simplify the business process, not simply digitise it.
That distinction is important. The innovation in BSM is not just the existence of an online marketplace. It is the attempt to create a more structured way for SMEs to identify needs, access specialised capabilities and manage professional-service relationships.
Creating more routes to opportunity
The model also has implications on the other side of the marketplace.
Africa has a growing pool of designers, developers, consultants, marketers, accountants and other skilled professionals. Yet having a skill does not automatically create access to consistent business opportunities.
A structured marketplace can create another route for professionals to connect with businesses that need their expertise.
For SMEs, this can mean access to capabilities they may not be able to maintain internally. For professionals, it creates opportunities to apply their skills across different businesses and projects.
The result is a model built around access rather than ownership: businesses do not necessarily have to build every capability in-house, while skilled professionals can participate in a wider market for their expertise.
Building a digital home for SMEs
Jennifer’s ambition for BSM extends beyond helping one business find one service provider.
The platform is being developed with a broader vision: to become a digital home for African SMEs, bringing together the services, tools, expertise and opportunities businesses need at different stages of their journey.
Today, that journey may begin with finding a designer to develop a brand identity, a developer to build a website, an accountant to organise the books or a consultant to solve a specific business challenge.
As the platform evolves, however, the proposition becomes much broader.
BSM is designed to bring more of the SME journey into one connected ecosystem—creating a place where businesses can find solutions, access expertise, manage their operations, discover opportunities and continue to grow.
That is what makes the platform’s long-term vision different from a conventional freelancer marketplace.
It is not simply about helping businesses find people. It is about creating the infrastructure around the everyday needs of running and growing a business.
For Jennifer Jonathan, the opportunity is to build a platform that grows with the businesses using it—moving from a marketplace for professional services toward a one-stop digital ecosystem for SMEs across Africa.
And that is ultimately the bigger idea behind BSM: not just helping businesses find what they need, but creating a place where they can build, manage and grow.