When I started @sofreshng in 2010, my hypothesis was simple, easy & straightforward, at least, so I thought.

I’ve always loved fruits. Back then, my family would spend at least ₦1,000 every time we went fruit shopping, and we did that about 2 or 3 times a week. So, in my mind
if I could find just 50 people to spend ₦1,000 every day, that would be ₦50,000 daily, and boom ₦1.5 million a month. In 2010, that was premium balling.

I thought it was going to be a walk in the park but of course, I was dead wrong. On opening day,

Unsurprisingly people assume that quality is the biggest factor that drives product sales as my poll results shows, with "Best Quality" ranking the highest and "Availability" coming in last.

But in reality, it’s the exact opposite.

The truth is distribution and availability
🪡

https://twitter.com/gkbalogs/status/1902444445187842440

matter more than anything else. No matter how great your product is, if customers can’t find it easily, they’ll buy something else.

Take McDonald’s, for example, they’ve never claimed to have the best burgers, yet they dominate the market. Why? You’ll find them everywhere,

Your biggest battles as a Nigerian business owner won’t be Diesel or Infrastructure, it will be with CULTURE. It will be with your PEOPLE.

Two key issues you will face are: 👇👇 1. Consequence Management: In Nigeria, we are generally averse to holding people accountable for their actions. People don’t want to report misconduct, hold others accountable, or enforce consequences. Emotions and sentiments tend to take over, and when you insist on standards

Story Time

I graduated top of my class, all my lecturers wanted me to start my master’s right away, I even got an assistantship role in the department, but I just couldn’t see myself teaching biochemistry. Then came my first job offer at Mr. Biggs as a restaurant supervisor.

https://twitter.com/AyoBankole/status/1896503588374917151

With a starting salary of N27,500 all my friends (except my fiancé) told me not to take it, said it was beneath me. Guess what I did? Not only did I take it, but I gave it my all. Worked 16-hour shifts, 6:30 am to 10:30 pm, because managers & supervisors didn’t get days off.

14 Years Later!

Frame 1: November 5th, 2010 just came back from the Ketu/Mile 12 market to stock up for the next day store opening.

Frame 2: 14 years later, 5 States, 12 locations, 150+ team members, 500+ vendors and suppliers, billions of naira sold, 300k+ customers served by @sofreshng

Abeg we don try! Shout out to @abimsbalogun badass business partner and HR Guru!
LITTLE BEGINNINGS
Stumbled on old pictures & I am amazed at how far we have come from this tiny 3 sqm office in our corner shop at Ogba to building @sofreshng, Nigeria’s pioneer and leading healthy food chain.

It's been a long and gruelling journey

Frame 1: Me in the tiny 3qm office I shared with my wife. We took turns to work.
Frame 2: Opening day at our fist location in Ogba, November 6th 2010
Frame 3: Launch day at our 15th location in Agungi, Lagos 2023 (closed 3 outlets afterwards)

Thread 👇

Question of the Day: Should I Start a Food Business?

Starting a food business is always tempting. After all, food is a basic human need, but while the demand is always there, building a successful food business in Nigeria's current economic climate is far from simple.

A 🧵

https://twitter.com/gkbalogs/status/1787420826632917041

Silver Lining: Nigerians spend over 50% of their income on food, making it a somewhat resilient market. People gotta wat!

The Challenge: Food inflation at 40%, rising energy costs, uncertain consumer spending, and currency instability create challenges for new food businesses.

WORKING WITH YOUR SPOUSE

How have you been able to work with your wife? Easy...…................ have you seen how pretty she is? That sure helps

On a more serious note 1.      
Ensure you have an alignment on the mission and
vision for the organisation.

2.      
Have clearly defined roles, responsibilities,
and designation from the start

People ask me all the time, how do you get to hire loyal, passionate and committed employees?

I ask them in return, why should they be loyal to the company? Does the business have an AUTHENTIC PURPOSE? Is there a strong sense of mission, over & beyond making money for the owner?

Do employees feel they can achieve their own dreams & aspirations working for the company? Is d company invested in their growth, development & well-being?

Note to the "you can't go wrong with food business" geng.
You certainly can go wrong my.

I have found about 3 models that work for the restaurant business.

https://twitter.com/rabois/status/1248683007478607872

1. MASS MARKET with extremely high volumes, low price point and very low OPEX e.g. your local amala joints. They are money minting machines when done right.

2. HIGH-END upscale, with premium pricing, relatively higher costs, medium volumes e.g your RSVPs etc...

A short story

June 2013, I called my wife and business partner @bimsofresh and told her we would have to close our fledgling and failing business after sinking about N15 million over a period of 3 years with no returns.

Thread 👇 It did not help that around March of 2013 there was a road closure on Wempco Road due to construction which paralyzed our business, so by June 2013, things were looking dire with no future. We were practically stalled, low sales, no growth, no profit, rising cost and no way out.

That Pepsi email actually looked measured to me.

I worked 2 years in sales at Cocacola (NBC) and every day was war, in fact you would think we were a new company trying to break into the market.

The rigour in the Cocacola sales team is second to none. I remember when you had an inspection carried out in your area and just 1 out of say over 1000 sub-dealers was out of products.... it will be like someone had died and all resources must be marshalled to supply that person within 1 hour.

The whole region would be in dissaray.

Your salary is the bribe to forget your dreams. FALSE!
My job takes all my time, I have to quit to pursue my dream. FALSE!

Listen, one of the best things that can happen to an aspiring entrepreneur is working in a structured coy. Let me share a few tips on transitioning

THREAD 1. START BEFORE YOU QUIT!
Please don't let your village people win!
Test out that idea, get a proof of concept, acquire paying customers, make sure you have good traction and if possible achieve or have a clear path to Break-Even before considering quitting.