Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I don’t what to say but I think in the business world by the grace of God have learnt sometimes and starting up a business is not very easy but if that’s what you want you will always get there. When I saw the title HOW TO MAKE A LIVING WITHOUT A JOB well, would I say I didn’t have a job when I started my business, no, I actually had a job. I read Computer Science with mathematics in school
when I graduated I got an employment almost immediately with an auditing firm, it was okay, it was good even back then it wasn’t as if we were badly paid and I was still able to make ends meet with my job. But the only thing I knew even while I was taking up the job was that I wasn’t going to do it for too long, because I knew that I need to do something better than I was doing, fine if I had chosen to be a successful computer analyst, software management or something I think I will have done very well to, do you understand but somehow somehow in the mist of all that I still found out that, cooking was something I will still dump that to do.
Do you understand what I mean now? Don’t let me waste too much of your time, it’s not as if I have too much time, I have just about 30 minutes, so let me just stay to my slides. It said: HOW TO MAKE A LIVING WITHOUT A JOB, if you don’t have a job you can create one for yourself.
There is something that you can do you might not know it, but you need to discover what you can do. Do you understand, for me while I was a teenager my mum got me cooking from a very small age, like while I was 8yrs, you know growing up we were so used to house- mades you know at a point in time like two house-mades in the house, one cooking the other doing another thing and basically my father found that very important because he was not always around you know he's traveling, jobs take him out of town and he feels like well fine, the burden was to much for my mum that was why we had two house-helps at a time. He just came home one day and he’s like can someone do this for me and is the house-help that’s there. He needed a clean glass of water and it was the house-help that was there to get him the water and he got so furious, he was like are you kids silly are you crazy and all that and that day he was like the two house-helps are leaving this house today without any offence and low and behold they packed there bags that day and left.
Behold we were all left alone, we had to do the washing, cooking, cleaning, just like that, you know it wasn’t as if we were some irresponsible children growing up but he was like so you have to do everything.
Unfortunately I was the first in the house and the boys could run away just wash the car and do the boys jobs, so I had to do all the girl’s job, so at the age of 8 I had to make the breakfast, lunch and dinner whether good or bad, I have to do it. It was tough I felt like my childhood was stolen away from me, you know normal things even my friends in the neighborhood will go for swimming and I can’t go because I have to make lunch, I have to do everything that a woman does in the house, but somehow I took by faith but it brought out something from me, it didn’t take them too long before they found out that I can cook very well, so everybody that comes to my house is like who made this food and of course it was like you know it’s sola and it like whoa such a very young girl at 10 at 11 and that got into my head everybody says whoa whoa to it so somehow I was just stock to it, if you come to my house you wont found me watching T.V, I wasn’t film frick, I will always be in the kitchen doing something. If you come to my house the first thind I’ll ask you is do you want to eat because I want to hear that compliment too, as in oh lovely cooking, good cooking and all that so you know I got it into me, you know to me it was like fun, it was like an hobby and as I grow up.
I grew up with it but it took my dad sitting me up and telling me that you can actually make a living out of this thing if you make up your heart to it and he gave me so many examples, he tells about when he travels,this shop and that shop, that restaurant, that this that that and somehow somehow that was how I discover my gifts. Now I don’t know what….,
Lets just go on now, as in I’ll say what are you passionate about as far as me am concern passion is what drives you. Cooking was a passion for me it was something I love doing. I could cook like until 10 o’clock go to sleep my father comes in like 12 o’clock I’ll still stand up to cook for him because it's not punishment to me its not a struggle, it just for me to think of what’s the easiest thing I can do, no matter what is it, the fact is that I must enjoy whatever I do, so its like what are you passionate about, your gifts, not your qualifications, I don’t know whatever I share with you tonight I didn’t get it from a book, a study, a quote or all that. Its just what I have learnt over the years and I believe that it works.
What are you passionate about? I know some people they don’t have to go to some fashion stuffs, they can just seat you down and make good clothes for you, make-ups like that, I know some people who are just good with hair, you need to discover what your talents are. Some people they are just good organizers, I have a friend, she’s so…..she doesn’t lose a receipt, she doesn’t…you know I don’t do all that I cant even do it, in fact as a matter of fact I have to consciously bring home my teller and tell someone to keep it for me so the next time am looking for it I just call you and say oh I gave you a teller one day bring that teller am sure that’s the teller am looking for. Am not such a person, I have to teach myself to do things like that, then your talents, passion is what you do, your gift is what you do without anyone prompting you to do it what do you just like doing.
So what do you do that you like, you are doing it and you are catching fun with it as in its not stressful that’s your gift, that’s a pointer to your gift you can actually create something out of that, you know, you need to discover your talent and I feel its your gift when anything you do you don’t feel as if you are been burden you are been stress off that’s your gifts.
What problem can you solve with your gifts, now let me tell you a little bit about myself as in, when I… I was working, while I was working I started cooking for my friends, it could be your birthday, I’ll offer to do the shopping and cook for you, do you understand, so that when your friends come and they are like who made the food, you’ll call me now, so I still like the compliment, I might make money out of it but maybe it was very small but I was enjoying doing that for a couple of my friends, it didn’t take me so long while I was doing it for my friends, hem my boss was going to do something one day, they were going to have a big convention and I said I can do it for you, he said no, they are going to use UAC, I said no don’t use UAC I can do it for you, he said no that do you know who and who will be there, he said this person and that person and I said you know something, let me do it with my money if it’s not good then don’t pay, so he doesn’t have to pay me as at that day and I had something like 48hrs , I said he shouldn’t pay me that by Monday when we get back to work he’ll decide if he want to pay me or not and all that and I did it by the time I did it.
On Monday morning when he called me he just told me, he said , you know what, you are not suppose to be working in this office think about it am your boss, you are good at your job oh, am not trying to sack you, am not trying to do anything but think about it that you can actually do that much and you are here just sitting in front of a computer doing data processing and you know and all that, that your wasting your talent and all that I said wish my father was Babangida then or who was… I don’t know, give me some money and I can start up this, I said that I actually have dreams that I have this and all that, he said that no, I should just sit back and think about it and that if I really need anything from him, that he doesn’t not mind, you know helping me out but he feels that I should go and develop what I have and turn it into a business.
That was encouraging to me so I use to still do that, so then because he said that, he gave me a little bit of confidence and then I started doing punch drink, now, then sobo was in vogue, sobo just came in from the north down south and then people were doing it and they will tie it inside linen bags and sell along the road and I saw it with somebody one day, you know the idea I had of punch was that, have seen it different films, people carrying…. But what I use to see then was Chapman, do you understand, but I don’t know what or how they made the Chapman but because the sobo looks like the Chapman colour, I felt I could create drink out of it so I took the sobo and then I did so many things with it, I added different fruits, just my own way and I did it and served it in one of my friends party and by the next Saturday somebody actually called me and said he wanted about 20 or 40 glasses of that kind of drink and I was like to me I didn’t do it to make money, I just did it, you know, I was like really, I now sat down and calculated this and that, I think #50 or something crazy like that and of course the guy ordered, I was going to order 20 he now said just give like 50, oh I felt good and I did it and for the next 4 weeks he was like because everybody that came, came from church and somehow somehow it’s either this department was doing something or its another person’s birthday or something, so I got to start making my punch drink every weekend so after a month I was like, my husband just said this is good business oh, I said I think am going to start this thing everyday.
One Monday morning I said am going to take it to work, my office we are about 200, do you understand, it was an auditing firm and we were auditing Oyo State then so every Monday morning like this even if you’re going to Ogbomoso, Oyo or whatever everybody has to report in the office in the morning and we were many so I just said okay fine what will it take me to sell about 20 bottles of this drink if I sell it for #50 or no, I think then coke was #20 or something, I don’t know, but it was just a little bit less than coke maybe #5 less am sure am going to sell it so I made it in the morning and I put iced block in it and I put it in a cooler and I did just about 20 bottles and I took it to work, you know I was just joking that I have drinks and everybody was like what drink and somebody just bought it and he was like this is really nice and within like 10 minutes I had sold everything, hah, I am sure I didn’t… I wasn’t concentrating on that’s day job till I closed, immediately, I just drove down to the market, I bought everything, went to somebody that I know normally drink bottled water in there house, we don’t drink bottled water in our house, I just told him, I said I want all the empty bottle in your house, he was like, its crazy what do you want to do, they gave it to me by the next day, I did like two coolers full to work, immediately I was packing like this, you know I was fortunate, we had just one car, I was married then but my husband let me take the car to work while he sort out himself, so by the time I was driving to work the first thing was like hah (funmi ni )give me drink (yen mofe eyo kan) I want one and everyboby started rushing it and before I know it hah and I was making it everyday.
One day I just decided I was going to save the money whatever I make out of this am going to put it in an account, so I opened an account then at AIB at Oke bola for this sobo drink, I don’t know what I called it, I think sobo account. I just opened the account and I used to put everyday like #1000 or #1200 by Friday, there some weeks that I’ll have #10000 so I’ll remove some money again and all that within a month I was a able to save like #30000 which was like 3 times my salary then, from that drink alone, so I was going to work, my salary was there and I was still making money, so I kept doing that in between. I still have some friends that call me for birthday parties and all that so after doing it for a while, for like 6 months my account was really beautiful, you know my husband was so proud of me he was like should he get me a second car so that you know… even people will make special orders that in my own because I use to put some pineapple flavour, some ginger bears so I’ll put some sugar, some people that are diabetics, will say I like the flavour but don’t add sugar so for your own special order, I’ll put an extra coin on it and I’ll put your name on it. I was doing that business one of my immediate boss got so mad that, (omo yi sa ) this woman, once I get to work the first 30 minutes everybody is just coming into my office , you know like that so he moved me from the office and posted me to then AIB bank, as in monitoring that I should start doing monitoring, you know collating data’s from the bank, I said okay but he opened me to my breakthrough because by the time I got to the bank I was even selling more than I was selling in the office because you know bankers, now they were on the different level, you know they had money so they didn’t like the small bottles so I had to do this 1.5 litters for them and I made 3 or 4 times the amount, if you tell me to add this, I’ll say boss do you know that if I add ginger, I’ll put some extra money, he said just bring it, on Friday’s it was like a bum everybody buys 4,5 bottles to take home and all that.
To cut the long story short. I made my first working capital from sobo, by the time I said I was going to resign and start my restaurant, I think from sobo I made #100,000 and of course that was good money for me then, okay we are going to start up so I started looking for a space and I got a space. One mistake I made was that because of my dreaming, passion and everything, I think I started bigger than I should have started, the point I want to make, am still going to get there, my gifts is a solution to some peoples problem so I thought further okay fine apart from the drink I can also cook and then when I thought of starting up the restaurant, I thought will I was working at AIB we had a problem then that was eating, you know we had to look for some of the cleaners and beg them and at times they just tell you they can only buy food two doors away and things like that and that’s not what you wanted or want and you have to beg some of them as in like, where do they sell good foods here.
I got a place that was okay, that was good enough, that could suit my purpose, my rent was exactly the #100,000 that I had and nothing more so I said fine if I paid #100,000 as rent how will I get money to buy things to the place and all that of course my husband could give me some money, he said I don’t have much but I’ll give you an extra #70,000, add this 70 to it, so out of the 70 I was able to make like 16 chairs and 4 tables, that was there, I had a cooker at home in thee kitchen, I moved it to the shop, then I wanted an executive lawn, where bank managers could come in to seat, so I moved my dinning table in the house into any other room in the shop and I made it my executive lawn and I removed my curtains in the sitting room and I put it in the executive lawn, so I removed the curtains in my bedroom into the sitting room, so I just got married about two years then, there were some gifts that I had that have not opened for, you know, they give you different things, I opened them and found out I had plates, cutleries, things there, I brought everything to start up.
so I didn’t really buy anything apart from the furnitures, I didn’t really have to buy so much, I stared with everything I could pick in the house and all that I leverage on my parents too, I said am starting this business if you like support me if you don’t like don’t support me. I know my mum had a lot of cutleries and plates somewhere by the time I choked her she was able to release some things to me, my mother-in-law felt like they wont say I didn’t support her, she too gave me some coolers and people just contributed some things, she has just made up her mind that, that’s what she want to do so let’s be part of it so that in future she won’t say that we all cursed her and things like that.
I started off like that, well maybe starting off wasn’t as if you started off and you are making so much money, hah people were flooding in but at least the system was workable, the process was you know, it show to me that okay fine I can actually do something out of it and we start off. I got some sales girls they will come to your office take your order take your food, you know to you and all that, maybe little mistakes we made we didn’t price so well I couldn’t spread my overhead over my product so that I could make maximum profit, those were mistakes and flows that I didn’t learn that I had to learn on the job, I didn’t get anybody to teach me all that so I said every great accomplishment have a small beginning, small start help you to be grounded, now I can tell you the story because that’s the way I started and I can never forget and have seen the process improve over the years, yes.
To the next slide, get obsessed with excellent, I won’t lie to you for anything I do, yes I like to make profit, but as much as possible, if I work for you and you don’t call me back to say hey men that was really nice I don’t fill fulfilled. I honestly tell you that so is like am waiting to see you the next time or that you’ll call and tell me that, that your food was lovely.
In the whole of Ibadan its not as if I won’t be able to sell this much, then we did that one thing I made sure was that for every service or any food or product we delivered to you as much as possible it has to come out excellent and because the first few jobs that we did then got us recommendations, it didn’t take us too far even after we are at dugbe starting off with that GTB I remember then walked into the shop and said you know what we know you sell but we can actually give you our kitchen just bring your foods there, everybody comes to eat in the kitchen, so we started doing that, we didn’t do that for 2 to 3 months then STB came and said okay fine we have a canteen and we are about 70 of us that was like ready market, you know and all that, it didn’t take us some month down the line, then CPPI came they just walked in and ate, about 4 of them and they just walked in and they were like why don’t you just bring this food to our office in Onireke we are about 20 or 25 of us at time we have…. I said okay fine and you know we went to CPPI so initially some of my staffs could be idle, you know they would have gone out and come back and have no other things to do but by the time we got all these retain ship I could split them, okay you go to Guaranty, you go to STB, you go to CPPI.
So on a daily basis you know we had something to work on, either which way we make like 10,000 to 15,000 because we have sold no matter who comes into the shop or not which brings us to the next point that if I had not taken the 100,000 shop I’ll still have been able to do my business because it was a draining point for me, do you understand what I mean, my overhead there was to high too many things were not working right for me there.
What I just told you know which is putting excellence to your work held us and was able to sustain us, what happened, after the business got burnt I was like whoa this is a big blow, am in and out as in I need a break, not that I was not going to do the business again but I felt that I needed a break to get myself together and all that and then, one of the manger in STB sent for me and he said I heard that you wanted a break, you know because I had to go and tell them that don’t expect me tomorrow because there is nothing to work with and things like that and the guy said I heard you needed a break, I said yes, I think I need to go off for a month or two to get myself together then I’ll come back, he said no way,you are not going on any break,
He said you know what, you are going to give the devil a big laugh, you understand and he’s going to snick into your life and take what you have from you, but I can help you out, how much do we pay you every week when we eat, I said maybe my bill is #30,000 he said okay fine we’ll give you #20,000 up front every week so you use that as a running capital but I want you to resume back here on Monday morning, he said I can’t afford to let you go like that and God used him, let me put it like that but well if you weren’t so good am not sure somebody will tell that but people looked at it and they felt like look, this is going to be like a talent wasted if we allow her to go this will discourage her so much she wont even wanted to do the business anymore and that was how I was able to hold on for that period, it just took sometime to do that and after a while I got myself together again and of course my dreams came back to me, all I had always dreamed about, it not just doing STB, I still wanted to do the delivery thing do you understand, so after I was doing that, of course my market dropped because it was just them that I was servicing people could not come into STB to come and eat so I just had to work with STB but I was able to gain more branches, they only had 3 branches in Ibadan and they gave me the three, that kept me busy for a period of time and after that I went back home and thought of it, what if STB tells me tomorrow to go. That means I’ll be back on the street without a job as in my business, so I said okay fine I wasn’t going to do STB alone, so in the morning apart from the fact that they take the food to STB, I’ll also make my food and put in the cooler and put it at the back of my boot and drive to dugbe and I can pack in front of your office take your order, serve your food sell to you and I’ll drive round and round till I sell like 100 packs everyday do you understand that was how I started back again apart from STB.
Somehow we got a place and that was how MATTERS KITCHEN started back again as a restaurant in Cocoa House after sometime like 2yrs then the restaurant got burnt and the guy listened to my story and he was like impressed and because of that he shared is own experience too with me, a very successful business man, when I say successful I mean successful, he was a very wealthy man and by the time he told me how he started too, he only told me because he want me to be encouraged and to believe in myself and believe that look just give yourself sometime you’ll get there and all that so I took him like a mentor and he helped me in several ways, by the time I was starting off the Coca House, I didn’t start off like 3 or 4yrs back when I was in old gbagi the building that got burnt I didn’t start on that level again my dreams, vision had changed, my expectation was higher, I came with a lot of confidence again and much more strength and all that and I was going to do that and by the time I put up the place and started. I leveraged on him. He was helping me because of the kind of person he was.
In everything at every stage of it I can tell you where God came in. God has been very faithful to me, he keeps his word at everything, he’s not a lazy God so I believe in hard work, I don’t like people lazy around me, people look at me, yes I know I could get to the extreme, you overwork yourself , you need to put balance to everything in life and all that but I feel if you have passion, vision, strength and God with you then you don’t have anything to fear take it one step after the other you know at a time.
Don’t despise the days of little beginnings, start off with little. it is not in your qualification it’s in your strength, your dignity, your work, what you know in your hands, what you can make out of your hands, what your hands can make for you that nobody can take from you.
THANK YOU
ooihoiuguify
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