An Interview With A Great Enterpreneur

 

MISS PELUMI, CEO, PELS_POT

Question 1: What motivated you to be an entrepreneur? And how did you identify the right business opportunity?

Answer: I started 3 years ago during the corona virus period though some people think I’ve been there a long time. I started entrepreneurship because I didn’t have the luxury of having people who cater for me, so I had to take up the responsibility myself. Then why I chose to go into catering and not any other line of business is because I’ve always loved cooking and I had a passion for it.

Question 2: Can you briefly share your journey in the cooking industry and how you got started (capital, target market, etc.)?

Answer: I started my business with a pot of soup. I thought of doctors or other businessmen who will want to stock up their freezer. I was motivated by the sale of my first pot of soup, that made me think that if I could sell this, then I could sell more. Then I began to go from place to place to showcase what I do. I didn’t have physical flyers then, neither did I have the money to do it. But with the little knowledge that I had at the time, I used a laptop and designed some graphics and shared it to people to help me post it on their whatsapp status. Some refused to post, while some agreed but I wasn’t discouraged. I didn’t even have a good phone at the time to snap my food but despite the bad quality of the pictures, the few people who believed in me still patronized me. I didn’t start my business with a capital. I used the money customers paid me when they preordered for food to get the foodstuffs required to make the food. My customers paid before delivery. My initial market was gotten when I went out to tell people about my business.

Question 3: Culinary trends are constantly evolving. How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and ensure that your offerings remain relevant?

 

Answer: I go on social media or order platforms to keep myself updated with the new methods and styles of getting things done. I always keep learning to stay relevant. Even when I get orders that I may not be able to do, I go and do my research, I ask those that have done it how they got it done. I don’t mind paying money to get the required knowledge, I don’t even mind asking someone younger or newer into the business than I am. As long as they know it, I am always willing learn from them.

Question 4: How have you utilized innovation and creativity in making your brand stand out in a competitive market?

Answer: What makes you a chef is when you can think outside the box and recreate something, not just copying what other people have made. You need to produce your own. I have my own recipe. If I make a meal, if you don’t ask me how I got it done, you won’t be able to get it. I make my own recipe, that’s why I’m unique. I don’t copy or always dance to other people’s tune. If I want my food to look this way, I create it. Even if I’m deducing ideas from other people, I still add my own to make it unique. Something has to be unique; the look, the touch, the design, etc. Uniqueness is very important in business to set you apart and for you to grow.

Question 5: What strategies do you use to effectively manage your time and prioritize tasks as an entrepreneur?

Answer: When I have a lot of things to attend to and they’re all quite important, I choose the one that is most important and do them first. If they’re all orders from customers, I study my customers very well and I know the ones that are most impatient and very sensitive, I know the ones that are quite understanding and though I do not take their understanding for granted, I make use of it when necessary (When I have a lot of orders in a short period of time). There are also some times I might refuse an order because I already have a lot on my plate at the moment, but I do it with excellent communication.

Question 6: How do you handle risk and uncertainty in the business world?

Answer: Business is a risk entirely. If you want to be successful in business, you must learn to take risks, but reasonable and calculated risks. Don’t invest into things just because people said there’s money in it. Make sure you weigh the loss and the benefits. If the loss is more, don’t do it. Make sure you have a management or backup source for every risk you take. Don’t wait till all conditions are perfect before you take actions in business because they may never be. Learn to see and take a hold of the right opportunity at the right time because you might lose it if you delay because you avoid taking risks. If you enjoy keeping money and being over-calculative in business, you’d never make it. Then, in making that risk favourable, make sure you do everything in your power to make it work. Even if it means making sacrifices and delayed gratification. Be committed to the course. Don’t be short-sighted, see the big picture! Don’t look for excuses, try it out first, don’t make assumptions. Be consistent. Live your life like you’re on the spotlight and people are watching you, don’t be carefree. Live like your vision. Tell people as you want it to be and not as it is, that’s how they’d also see you. Don’t reduce the value of your services because of what you’re going through. Place value on what you do, it will keep speaking for your product.

 

Question 7: Can you talk about any specific challenges you faced early on or while building your business and how you overcame them? Also, what kept you inspired in the business in the face of challenges?

Answer: It was the fact that it wasn’t just money I was looking for, I was trying to build a name. A lot of challenges came but what kept me going is trying to advance myself, being different from others. When I’m in an unforeseen, bad circumstance and I’m beginning to get scared, I first of all get a grip on myself and think differently about the situation. I put my mind to work on how to come out of it and I affirm to myself that I can solve this problem. When you affirm to yourself that you can solve the problem, it takes away the fear and indeed you’d be able to solve the problem.

Question 8: How do you leverage social media to promote your business and what other strategies do you use for marketing your business and also engaging with your audience?

Answer: So, I started with the social media that has my target audience – WhatsApp because most people have my contacts. I just recently started building my Instagram account. So, I put more efforts into where I get my customers (WhatsApp). I focused and built on WhatsApp first before moving to other social media platforms. Other strategies I implement for promoting my business is the use of brand influencers because they have more followers and reach than I do. I also make sure these brand influencers have my kind of audience and also live in my city.

Question 9: Can you share insights on building and leading a successful team that shares your vision?

Answer: I don’t present myself to them as a boss but as a friend. If I present myself to them as a boss, they be able to speak freely to me and share their ideas with me, it also keeps them loyal. Question 10: How do you manage costs and expenditure for maximum profits?

Answer: It’s not every time that there’s an increase in cost of things that you increase price. As long as there’s no loss, just a little decrease in profit, I don’t change price. If I must increase price, I must increase the quality as well. If I must cut that expenditure, then I can replace the use of very expensive items with quality and less expensive items that is still satisfying and exceptional to my customers.

Question 11: How do you gather and utilize customer feedbacks to improve your culinary offerings and enhance overall experience?

Answer: I always ask my customers to not withold feedbacks from me so I can know where to improve and how to serve them better to their liking. Ask them for these feedbacks myself, especially our first-timers because their first impression of our service will determine if I'm able to retain them or not. Don't just accept any answer like that, read their body language as well. If a customer is truly satisfied, there's an excitement that comes with satisfaction. If you notice they're tring to hold back some feedback you could rephrase your question or mode of communication, so they'd open up to you. Build a relationship with your customers in a way that they'd feel comfortable and free to share feedbacks with you no matter how negative.

Question 12: How do you manage bad debts, losses or unprofitable investments in your business?

Answer: I rarely have people who owe me in my business because my customers pay before I deliver their food to them. But they’re some people that are my regular customers and I’ve worked with them long enough to trust that even if not immediately, they’d still pay if they owe. But in those rare times that I have customers who owe me, I replace the cost of their order with my personal money so there’d be no loss. But once this becomes a repeated occurrence, I totally stopped delivery without payment.

As for having business losses, I don’t have that in my food business. I’d rather cook a lot of times daily when orders come, than just cooking so much at once and they end up getting wasted.

Question 13: How important was networking and building relationships in your path to success? Any tips for others looking to do the same?

Answer: If you’re building a business, you must learn to be jovial. You can’t be an introvert and build a successful business, if it happens. It’s by grace. As a business owner, you must have more friends than “enemies”. Your work can come from anybody. There’s nothing like “she’s not talking to me, so, i won’t talk to her.” Even if they don’t talk to you, talk to them first because your work can come from them. Learn how to smile and start conversations with people. You can be playful with your customers so as to make friends. You don’t have to be too close to people to make friends with them. The way you talk and relate with them matters a lot. Building a relationship with people is not hard. Starting a conversation with people is also not hard, you can start with a compliment, no matter how uptight they are, it will make them interested in having a conversation with you.

Question 14: Are there special course or training you had to take to be better in your business?

Answer: In business you have to keep learning to be better. Know the aspects that you aren’t good at and need improvement on, example, communication skills, sales making, negotiation skills, and get training for it whether it’s something you “like” doing or not. You can get trained by friends or family, it mustn’t be in a formal way, it can be by day-to-day activities in your environment. Be intentional and conscious about it, then it becomes part of you. You can learn from anybody, as long as they are great at that thing.

Question 15: What actions do you take on a daily basis to maintain your current success and achieve more success?

Answer: No matter what happens, I must post my business on my status and talk to people about my business everyday; consistently! My customers must feel like they can always reach out to me for business and I’d be available. Always put your business out there like at every point in time, you’re having sales, don’t let them think otherwise even when it is otherwise. Have a team that works with you on consistent publications

Question 16: What practical steps or advice will you give to young entrepreneurs who are just starting their journey?

Answer:

●     Firstly, I’d ask you, “do you really like what you do?” If you do what you like, you’d be able to condone every stress that comes with it. Not because you saw someone else doing it or you were forced into it or you think that’s where money is. You must have a passion for it.

Secondly, now that you’ve found what you love, you must be intentional about it and start immediately, don’t procrastinate.

●     Now that you’ve started, be consistent: Irrespective of the circumstance, keep going, keep making progress, keep developing yourself and creating new ideas, Keep increasing your value and remain relevant. When you’re consistent, you’d be able to face any challenge and prevail. Even if you’re not making sales, or the profit is not as much as you’d like, keep going. Consistency will keep you relevant.

●     Have a vision of how great you want your business to be, it’d keep you going.

●     The quality of work you do is very important. It’s not about how far, but how well and how smart you are. You have to be smart in business, it’s not only about hardwork. There’s hardwork and there’s smart-work. You have to combine the both for a successful   business.

●     You need to have a mentor, someone that can guide you when you don’t know what to do. Your mentor has to be in your line of business.

●     Also have someone that you want to impress, someone that you know that once they hear of your progress, they’d be very proud of you, and you want them to be.

●     Have someone you report to, an accountability partner. It has to be someone who understands and supports your vision and goals.