The Nation Newspaper

Tag: success

  • Understanding success to be successful

    Understanding success to be successful

    Her story shows that if one wants to build a successful business, one has to understand what success means and be truthful. She has achieved that with agro business, reports. DANIEL ESSIET.

    Miss Mayowa Oluyomi Oguntoyinbo, Chief Executive Officer, A.Y.O Farms, Ogun State  has a high entrepreneurial streak.  A graduate of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Ibadan, with Masters degree in Public Health from Bournemouth University, United Kingdom (UK), she had  a desire  to  create something that will outlive her and  have a greater social impact as an entrepreneure.

    Her  words:” I remember getting paid for packing ready to use bathmate sponges my mother made while growing up as a very young girl, and I have applied one or two informal skills to earn income while leaving abroad.”

    She took up a few jobs and worked as   a Veterinarian Officer and Clinician. The   job entailed Animal Health Management and treatment and health advocacy to clients and the public.

    But her dream was yet to be accomplished. Eventually, she had to quit her job as a Veterinary  Officer and went  into agro business.

    One of the major reasons why she ventured into agric-business was her passion for food.  “I like food, I like good food and I like to enjoy what I eat, I know that in war-times and happy times, food is a need that will always come first after the need to buy fuel at the moment in Nigeria.”

    With N100, 000 in her hand, she decided to start small. She started with growing vegetables such as  green pepper, red peppers, tete, shoko, ugwu, cucumber, ewedu and okro. She added  maize and pilot crops of maize, pineapple and banana and later raised livestock since her vision was  to establish an integrated farm.

    She has since been in the business for three years. Today, the business, according to her,  is self sustaining with a number of staff on her employment.  Through creativity and persistence, she has  found a unique way of growing her business.

    Like other young entrepreneurs, she has faced some challenges as a start up. In all, she identified them as being more of technical and infrastructural than finance.

    While running the business has been deeply enlightening to her, she has also undergone technical training programmes.

    She has delved deeply into the sector, acquiring knowledge and expertise in various components that make up agro business.

    She said she would have loved to work with a mentor in a similar business for a year or average of six months first, carrying out technical analysis on the land to know the basic resources required ahead before going solo.

    Her success, however, has to do with her positive mindset.  ” Of course yes, if I do not believe I can do this and overcome this then I have started failing, if again I do not speak out then I am worse off,” she said. So, what does it take to make a success of any business?  She has learned to overcome the hurdles and barriers, which came from many sources such as family commitments, experience and lack of finance.  She  had always set her eyes on greater things. She never shied away from rejection and had so much faith in the quality of her produce.

    One of the keys to her success is determination and she has a resolute spirit in the face of any challenge. She always looks forward  to finding solutions to any problem confronting her and  her family has been a great driving force,  giving her the impetus to go for her dream.

    However, as much as these attributes are the backbone of her success, it was her pragmatic approach to getting finance and retaining control of her produce that  determined her success.

    She advised young entrepreneurs to   grow with their visions. ” Do not leave any financial or strategic decision to any ‘expert” and do not be afraid to ask for help,” she said.

    Her objectives are to make young entrepreneurs in the agro industry enterprising and productive to earn as much as they can and provide job opportunities for others.

    Her greatest achievement is running a well-established and self-sustaining business.

    Looking ahead, she hopes to, establish a big wholesale business and expand into new areas.

  • The road to success

    The road to success

    Starting a small business can be rewarding, but challenging. Daniel Essiet writes.

    What made  Emmanuel Anigbate to start his firm – AC Topnotch Communications Limited, Lagos – was that he wanted to be on his own boss.

    To him, life is about creating things. A long time ago, he had the vision to establish an ad agency. His problem was that he had small capital.  He  had  only N60,000.

    Anigbata, who had co-founded another company with a colleague, left because of some unresolved differences. He didn’t make a profit from it, he said.

    His words: “I had invested all my savings in the business and did not get any dime when I left it. It was not that easy, however, for me as the income was scarcely enough to take care of the home needs and at a point, I started doing freelance printing jobs whenever I was lucky to get any to argument my small income. It was by so doing that I was able to start up with  very little amount I had saved.”

    So, he started afresh. With the little  money, he registered the business and printed letterheads and business cards.

    His background in human resources and advertising put him in good stead for when he set up the business.

    People really liked his work and he realised there was a gap in the market.

    As a young agency, Anigbate set out to recruit  staff that were as passionate as he was working towards making the business a success. He assembled staff with varied backgrounds. For him, communications is one industry that one needs a margin, to  succeed because the players are really hard  and  hypercompetitive.

    In an industry dominated by big players, the success of small agencies depends on the ability to develop fresh ideas. To meet the challenge within his team, each member is  an expert at his or her job and they deploy  specialist  skills, depending upon the project. Because of challenges at the market place,  the company is exploring a broad array of tactics and learning  when to use each tool to solve a range of client challenges. Besides, flexibility is the key  strategy  at  every touch point.

    Facing a lot of challenges, he had to brave the unbearable conditions while keeping his entrepreneurial dream alive.

    His hard work and drive – coupled with his ability to see beyond the circumstances and do whatever necessary to get the job done – has helped his company survive the  tight marketing business market place.

    According to him, financing is a challenge because the industry is really competitive and one have to be really significant in terms of scale to break even or be profitable.

     

     

     

  • Success unsure of future

    Success unsure of future

    Struggling Spanish La-Liga side Granada are yet to make a decision on the future of on-loan forward Isaac Success.

    The Nigeria Under-20 striker was loaned to the team by Serie A side Udinese last season upon his signing, as the Italian outfit have exhausted their foreign players quota.

    Udinese, just like Granada, are owned by the same owners, the Pozzo family, who are also the owners of promotion-chasing English Championship side, Watford.

    Granada’s main problem this season has been their poor goal return in La-Liga and Success, who was thrust in at the start of the season, failed to solve their issues.

    Success has been finding games hard to come by since the sacking of Joan Capaross as new manager Albert Resino has relegated him to the B team.

    Playing for the B team, his fine form of six goals from 15 games, as opposed to one goal in 27 for the first team, has proven his quality.

    According to reports gathered by SL10.ng, Success might have his loan deal extended if Granada are relegated as the club will have to rely on youth players to cut costs. But if they stay up a decision will be made on his future in the summer.

    A move to Watford like Odion Ighalo is not feasible due to issues with obtaining a work permit, hence making his situation more complicated ahead of this summer.

    However, a strong showing at the World Youth Championship in New Zealand, where he is due to participate with Nigeria, will help in hastening a decision on his next career move.

  • Fabricating for success

    Fabricating for success

    Small scale machine fabricators are dominating the domestic market for machine spare parts production. They are gradually breathing fresh life into the once moribond sector of the economy, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    While in secondary school, Anietie Nelson, Chief Executive, Emedion Technical, Industrial and Metal Fabrication Company, Owode-Onirin, on the outskirt of Lagos, took interest  in creative arts. In everything he does  one thing is common: an entrepreneurial spirit. Although his thoughts were tilted towards being self-employed, especially as a result of his creativity, but he was not primed for such at that time. He, therefore, opted to work with private firms to enhance his knowledge and acquire more experience.

    Although he holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Yaba College of Technology, working with several firms has since proved very useful to him as it exposed him to challenges  organisations face, especially with acquiring and maitaining equipment. This exposure was the motivation he needed to bring out the entreprenuerial spirit in him.

    Consequently, he developed a business plan and sourced the initial fund that helped  him to move  his  metal fabricating business into a rented facility.

    Observing the trends  in the market, he discovered  that there was a boom in the popcorn making business. However, the cost of buying a popcorn making machine was too huge to bear for an average popcorn maker.  And while  the demand for popcoorn was on the rise, vendors of the snack still found it  hard  to  make   good profit from its sales.

    Nelson took   advantage of this and decided  to fabricate locally affordable popcorn machines. This was  to give popcorn makers, who couldn’t  afford  imported  machines the opportunity to remain in business and increase their profit margin by a good proportion.

    Apart from providing  low cost  pop corn machines, he also  counseled prospective entrepreneurs  on  the financial   criteria  for creating  a  simple production  business.

    Many of his clients are individuals, couples and  families,  who  now  operate from  both single  and  multiple locations.

    To  the vendors’ advantage,   his   products  are  compact and easy to operate. The machines comprise accessories such as removable ice pan and drain tube for easy cleaning.

    Business for Nelson has been very good for the past 10 years. He has produced more machines on yearly basis. And as a research strategy, once he sees  complex  engines and  machine  components, Nelson tries  to  strip them  down for study. This has helped him to continually improve on his production. Today, he  is   able  to  fabricate  everything from basic accessories to a complete  machine set.

    To make production easier, he  divides  the process into many parts like sheet-metal fabrication, structural fabrication, paint delivery, quality control and creative design. He does his own part and gives the rest to other specialists. For entrepreneurs, who like to set up agro and food based industries, his  company  provides machineries, technological assistance, servicing of the machineries and  proper guidelines for better production for  aspiring entrepreneurs. He assists farmers to fabricate milling machines to produce  flours from   maize, cassava  and  yam. He  has also developed  smoked  fish  machines.

    There are  great business prospect in machine fabrication. This has been further buoyed by the surge in the agro-allied and food industry because there is an increasing influx of entrepreneurs in  sectors like bakery, noodles, packaging, and processing among  others. Operators in these areas are believed to place a high demand on locally fabricated machines to enhance thyeir productivity. Nelson’s  goal is  to become  the most-sought after fabrication  firm   by entrepreneurs, enterprise community and food industry sectors.

    With his daring spirit to act as a catalyst for a change and industrial development, Nelson believes he has a lot to offer new comers in food processing in designing machineries to suit their business.

    He also said many new projects are in the pipeline to assist those who want to produce products from corn,  maize, beans, custard seed and  soy beans .

    With  the boom in the agric  sector, he is hopes to help farmers   transform seasonal fruits and vegetables into a new zest of taste  with  locally  fabricated  machines.

    But  there are lots of challenges in making the business viable due to socio-economic and political situations.

    Right  now, the  business  is  dependent mostly on power supply, transportation etc.

    But, in spite of the huge prospects and seemingly high demand for his works, Nelson still has challenges. Some of these come in the form of a slow economic growth, and the rising cost of sourcing raw materials.  Besides, as consumers grow more sophisticated and demanding, so are firm’s looking for perfectly made fabricated components. Besides, consumers still see locally fabricated parts as lower in quality compared to imported  ones.

    With the government emphasising inward integration, the likes of Nelson, who have made efforts on their own, can further be assisted by government to develop the industrial base of the economy.

  • ‘Ajimobi aided my success’

    The lawmaker-elect to represent Oluyole Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Olusunbo Olugbemi, has attributed his victory to the achievement and good works of Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

    In a statement in Ibadan yesterday, Olugbemi thanked the people of his constituency, leaders and executives of All Progressives Congress (APC) for their support during the presidential and National Assembly election.

    He called on the people to vote for Governor Ajimobi and Wahab Abiodun on Saturday to ensure continuity and good governance.

  • Clergy proffers pathway to success

    President of the International Bible Academy (IBA), Dr. Murphy Akrasi, has advised Nigerian students to consciously excel in their education.

    Dr Akrasi gave the advice at the convocation and ordination of students of the academy, which held at the Chapel of Christ our Light, University of Lagos.

    He said: “Students must have vision and be focused on what they are looking for and where they are going. If you have a vision and you are determined to be the best, then you will have success. Excellence is not by chance, it is a decision. You choose it, even though distraction and challenges may set in.”

    Akrasi said the nation needs leaders who are patriotic and faithful to provide solutions to the challenges plaguing the country. He advised Nigerians to shun sentiments during the ongoing election and vote based on leadership qualities possessed by a political candidate.

    “Being patriotic is part of faithfulness, but people are not. People want leaders that would meet their selfish interest, and because of this, we have leaders that will not be able to provide solutions to national problems, since people voted them in because they want to share in what they call national cake. We should look out for true leaders,” he said.

    Akrasi advised Nigerians to make the most of the opportunity to vote, as it is the chance to proffers solutions to national problems. His words: “The opportunity has come again, that is why we have elections, so that in view of the problems that could not have been solved in the last four years, we should look out for people that would be able to bring solutions to these national problems in the next four years.”

    Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution, Elder Joseph Etem reminded the graduands that there is no shortcut to success. He therefore charged them to lead by example.

    Dr Akrasi said the academy, which is independent of any Christian denomination, was licensed by the National Universities Commission and offers courses in the School of Ministry, diploma and advanced diploma in Theology.

  • Mum motivated my success

    Mum motivated my success

    Oluwaseun Fapohunda graduated as overall best student at the fifth convocation of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) in Ondo State with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.8. The Biochemistry graduate tells YOMI AYELESO (300-Level Business Administra

    How did you feel graduating as the best student?

    I give glory to God for the feat. I felt I accomplished what has never been done at the Department of Biochemistry. I graduated with Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.8, the highest so far recorded in the department.

    What is the motivation behind this feat?

    I consider it as a promise between God and I. The zeal to serve God has been my motivation. He promised to always make me the head and not the tail. ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men’. Secondly, my humble background also motivated me. I remember when I came for entrance examination, my church sponsored me because my mom could not afford to give me transport fare. She challenged me to make her happy at the end of first degree. This encouraged me to give in my best.

    Should we say your success was achieved by prayer and not by reading?

    No. Prayer will be meaningless if someone does not complement it with hard work. Working and praying are key to success. I never missed night reading from my year one to the final year. I carefully planned my reading timetable which covers 168 hours in a week. I kept fidelity to the timetable and avoided unnecessary disturbance. I read almost every time and spent my leisure period in the library. But, prayers complemented my efforts.

    Did you engage in extra-curricular activities?

    I was an active worker in the Bible Study Unit of the Redeemed Christian Fellowship. In my final year,0 I was chosen as Assistant General Coordinator in Biochemistry Department Fellowship. I was not involved in any other activities aside fellowship works and my studies.

    What is your advice for students?

    I advise them, irrespective of age, status, background or circumstances, to seek the Kingdom of God first, and other things shall be added. I want them to study as if everything depends on them and pray as if everything depends on God.

     

     

  • ‘Pray for elections’ success’

    ‘Pray for elections’ success’

    Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has urged Christian faithful to use the Lenten season to pray  for the restoration of peace, especially in the face of political and security tension.

    He also advised Christians and Nigerians of other faiths to use the season to pray and work for the success of the elections.

    The governor in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba, said the Lenten season called for sober reflection on individual attitudes and national challenges in order to engender a better society.

    He added that “since the Lenten season in Christendom marks a period of sober reflection, fasting and penitence in anticipation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday, it is imperative that the season is also used for a deeper and sober reflection on the state of affairs in our country.”

    He said that no state or nation could develop in a state of anarchy or violence, as resources and efforts directed towards containing violence and other forms of criminality could be properly channeled to the economic, industrial and infrastructural development of the country.

    The  Speaker of the House of Assembly, Razak Atunwa, urged Christians to use the period of self denial and sacrifice to supplicate to God for a peaceful conduct of the  elections and stability of the nation.

    He said the nation needed prayers and concerted efforts by stakeholders to restore stability.

    The Speaker in a statement by his media aide, Abdulrahman Sanni, advised politicians to embark on issue-based campaigns.

  • Success returns to La Liga

    Success returns to La Liga

    As predicted by SL10.ng Flying Eagles striker Isaac Success was in  good form for the B team of La Liga side Granada, campaigning in the third division of Spanish football league, which has earned him a recall to the main team ahead of the trip to Levante this week.

    Smarting from scoring five goals in five games for the B team, the 19-year old Nigerian was among three new faces that had a work out with the main team yesterday, including returning Eddy and Rueben Rochina who are working their way back into full match fitness.

    Success scored just once for Granada in the La Liga from the 15 games he played with the first team but his last competitive action for the team was on January 18 where he came in as a substitute for Robert Ibanez in the 78th minute.

    He hopes to be picked for the first time by new manager Abel Resino, who replaced Joaquin Caparros in January as Granada aim to pick up three points against fellow relegation battlers Levante, who are expected to parade Uche Kalu.

  • Secrets of success, by Coscharis chief

    Secrets of success, by Coscharis chief

    Students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUT MINNA) hosted the President of COSCHARIS Group, Dr Cosmas Maduka, who gave them tips on how to be successful entrepreneurs. UCHECHUKWU EKWUEME-DURU (300-Level Industrial Technology Education) reports.

    What does it entail to become an entrepreneur? It takes sacrifice, dedication, discipline and consistency to become an entrepreneur, Dr Cosmas Maduka, the President of COSCHARIS Group, told a large gathering of students at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, the Niger State capital.

    Maduka spoke penultimate Tuesday at a public lecture organised by the university with the theme: What it takes to be a successful entrepreneur: The COSCHARIS story. It was held to hone students’ entrepreneurial skills. Staff and students trooped to the Caverton Hall the event.

    This world, the COSCHARIS boss said, is a big mall, where everything in it is reserved for those willing to pay the price.

    Maduka said the secrets of success of any entrepreneur were his sacrifice of comfort, commitment to improvement, discipline and consistency. As aspiring entrepreneur, Maduka said money should not be the focus of the students, noting that the love of money could easily bring down a business.

    He said: “The choices we make also play major role in our success as an entrepreneur. The love of money can ruin the chances of an entrepreneur to succeed, because money should not be the main goal in business. The main problem people, especially students have is their outrageous love for money and material property. They believe that money is everything but the truth is that, it is not.

    “I worked for my uncle after my father’s death for seven years without being paid. Those seven years moulded me to the personality I become today. You must work for experience, don’t always work for the money.”

    There was excitement in the hall when Maduka explained to the audience, which included staff and students, how he laboured to build his automobile firm to a state of fame and reputation.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Musbau Akanji, in his remarks, stressed the relevance of entrepreneurship to the growth of the nation. He said: “It is important we know and understand the current situation of the country so that we would all work together not just to reduce the rate of unemployment as entrepreneurs, but to also create employment for others.”

    The VC promised that the management would continue to hold such lectures to produce world-class entrepreneurs among the students.

    Some of the students at the lecture expressed their views on what they learnt from it. Gideon Mamudu, 500-Level Biology Education, said he was privileged to meet Maduka, who he described as successful entrepreneur. He said: “I am happy to be part of the students, who attended this great lecture. I believe what I learnt today would go a long way in shaping my views on entrepreneurship.”

    Hajara Mohammed, a 200-Level Agricultural and Bio-resources Engineering student, said: “I was impressed by the success of Maduka, who did not go to school because of his deprived background. That he has built a large business empire shows there is hope for the youth to achieve success with their talents. The lecture has a positive impact on me.”

    At the event included the Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Prof Abdullahi Bala and Prof S.O. Sadiku, Registrar, Mrs V.N Kolo, and the deans of faculties, directors of units and Chief Security Officer of the university, among others.