Edith Ozumba is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Abacado Products International Limited. In this interview with IKECHI NZEAKO, she speaks about her journey as an entrepreneur, manufacturer and business development coach. Excerpts:
What do you do as a business coach and how did you get into the business?
When it comes to business coaching, I am broad and at the same time I also focus on manufacturing because I am a manufacturer and I have been manufacturing for 12 years.
I started very small. I coach and consult for manufacturers, especially those who are starting from ideation; they just have an idea. I start with them, build up the idea and bring it to reality.
I work with them through the whole process; even to sustainability because that is the stage my business is at now.
My business is at the stage of me transferring it to another person. I worked through the stage of building ideas for my business; bringing the idea to reality and sustainability, leadership, growth and getting to handing over.
How has the response been?
I think God has been good to me, what I teach people is my life; everywhere I have been successful is what I teach people. And had my own share of mistakes.
For you to build a business when you did not have a mentor and did not have anybody to direct you; except for what I learned from school I had to figure out every other thing.
I had to design most of my machinery to suit my products. I have three pioneer products, meaning I was the first to produce them in Nigeria.
Two of the products have been copied; but I remain the sole producer of the third product.
There is no way you will listen to me and you will not have a positive change in your business; and you will not think in your subconscious thought that if this woman can do this, I can also do it.
Having me as a coach is a plus because you have someone that will hold you by the hand so that you will not fall because I fell several times.
It was not rosy all through.
I had a lot of struggles; even building the finances was difficult. I never collected loans to build my business till date. The proof is there for all to see.
I had to do a lot for my business, at a time I was the accountant; I was the financial manager, the product formulator, I was the producer, I was the marketer. And later I began to get experts as the money came in.
I got an expert to manage the place I know that I have strong weaknesses first, and managed my strength.
That is why I said whatever I am teaching, I am teaching from experience. I have passed through them and they are not someone else’s experience.
Tell us about the company?
The name of the company is Acabado Products International Limited; we are into making raw materials for cake makers.
What other things do you do?
We make cake serum. We started doing this in 2014 and in 2019 another person started making ready to roll fondant that we started in 2012, but we are still at the top.
Then cake serum, no company is making it at the moment. The one that the industry knows very well is Acabado colours, it is used to beautify cakes.
Can you tell us some of the challenges you faced formulating these products?
We have challenges of funding, but we decided to take it a little at a time, especially since we were learning to work with customer feedback.
Customer feedback was very important to me. Developing the product based on customer feedback was more important to me than expansion of the product.
We were building on that. It was not easy because we did have money that we were throwing back into the business; we were not working on expansion, we were working on satisfying the customers. It made it easy for us not to look at borrowing.
What motivated you to start the business?
I was a baker; I baked for 22 years. In those 22 years there were a lot of struggles; starting the ready to roll fondant I noticed my workers were wasting the fondants.
Every week we were throwing about 4kg away. It got to the point we were throwing away about 12 kg every week.
I looked at the waste and coming from my background, there is a percentage one exceeds then we call it waste and it has exceeded that percentage.
I had to think of a solution. That was how I started that ready to roll fondant. I started it for my company but people were ordering for it and I had to produce for others.
Despite the challenges, what is keeping you in the business?
One of the things that keep us is perfect finishing; that is my driving force. When I see that a product is giving a customer that thing they desire to have, that is my satisfaction and motivation.
That makes me want to do more. As it is right now, the baking industry looks up to Acabado to produce solutions.
They tell us, how about producing this or that. When they have problems, they come to us, like we are the alpha and omega can solve the problem for them. That is how much they have come to trust us to provide solutions.
We are not into margarine, but people are asking us when we are going to be producing margarine.
That trust that the bakers have put on us is part of my driving force.
As it is today, if I decide to stop producing I don’t think I will go hungry.
But when I remember that there is still a problem to be solved, it makes me not sleep. Each time I try, by God’s grace I find a solution.
How will you describe the Nigerian business environment?
Presently, it is tough. But when you have a niche, it makes it easier. Not that it will eliminate the problem but it helps you to keep pushing.
I just hope that they will find a lasting solution to this foreign exchange issue.
It is making the cost of raw materials fluctuate and when the cost of raw materials is fluctuating, it doesn’t help you to plan. You can’t plan, you are just floating. If it’s going to be 1300, let it be.
Let it be stable so we can plan. My business plan for January is useless because I am not using it because it won’t work, I can’t keep changing figures.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs especially the younger ones?
The younger ones always think they must have all the money before they start.
They forget that there should be a learning period; that learning period is very important. That time will determine how far you are going to go in business.
If you don’t give yourself time to learn, you are going to fail in the future and at time you may have a lot of money you are managing, and by the time you will fail everything will crash in your face because you did not allow yourself to grow with your customers.
Read the full article here
