Graemoh Foods at 4
So Graemoh Foods turned 4 this month and it was a low-key event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To be honest, the years seemed to have passed really quickly. As a company, we’re definitely not where we want to be but we’ve definitely come along way from my mum’s kitchen where we started lol. We started from only friends and family buying our products just to support us to having people we don’t know call us to tell us that our products are finished from the shelves of some stores we sell at and that we should restock. We’ve done things that have been hugely successful and things that haven’t. We’ve made money, lost it and for the most part retained it so I guess we aren’t doing too badly. The fact that we have gotten to the point where we get the same results all the time from our bespoke processes is big credit to our research and innovation. We’ve had to borrow ideas from the automotive, oil and gas industries in order to solve some of our challenges.
I used to believe that I was doing it for the money but now I realize that its more about making a difference in agriculture. Don’t get me wrong making money is part of it but the longer I’ve been in this sector, the more I’ve realized that as a nation and continent, we must improve the way we do agriculture if we don’t want to suffer from hunger and malnutrition in the coming years. I’ve also realized that entrepreneurs are the ones who have the ability to change this country especially given the fact they employ more people and contribute billions of Naira to our GDP. To this end, we started the Graemoh Foundation that assists entrepreneurs and encourages entrepreneurship.
At this point, I would like to thank God for everything! Graemoh Foods won’t even be an idea talk less of a reality without him. I also want to thank my family and friends who supported me from the early days and still do now. You guys believed and supported me even when I know you didn’t understand half of what I was pitching lol. Big shout-out to our staff for going beyond what is required to ensure Graemoh Foods is a success. A special thank you to you the customer for always buying and recommending our products to other people. It really means a lot to us.
Its been four years of uncertainties, fear, sadness, obscurity, failures, joys, successes, fame, courage and everything in between that I would gladly do again if given the opportunity. I’m really proud of how far we’ve come and I eagerly look forward to the coming years especially as we seek to raise the standard in agriculture and agro-processing in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
I would like to conclude by sharing some tips with startups that I’ve learnt over the years that would hopefully be of help to them.
1. Entrepreneurship is hard work and lots of it! You cannot be the founder at a startup and expect to be chilling. You should be ready to put in more work than your employees. Entrepreneurship is 10% inspiration (idea) and 90% perspiration (hard work).
2. Be flexible with your planning and remember that you can never have it all figured out especially at the start. Plan as best as you can but have it at the back of your mind that you might have to make several changes as you go along. In addition, the world is ever changing so just because a particular strategy worked last year doesn’t guarantee that it will work this year.
3. Don’t take failures personal. Failure is part of the learning process. You generally learn more from failing than when everything is going great. Failing at something doesn’t make you a complete and permanent failure. Learn to pick yourself up and try again.
4. Being the founder of a startup, you will have to take a lot of decisions and most times with very little information. Do remember that a wrong decision is better than no decision. Don’t sweat the wrong decisions and learn to move on quickly.
5. You’re in business to satisfy the needs of the customers, not yours. So always make sure that they are satisfied with whatever you’re doing, not what you feel is right.
6. Whatever you do, never run out of cash! Always seek to raise funds even if you don’t need them immediately. Keep your eye on your cash flow and always spend less than you earn.
7. Your company is only as good as the weakest employee. So always strive to get the best hands but more importantly is that they work together as a team not as individuals.
8. Most people will doubt you especially when you start no matter how good your idea is and this is expected. The best solution to this is to work hard and prove them wrong.
9. Begin with the end in mind especially with regards to company structures and processes. Just because you’re a sole-proprietorship doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start planning for when the company grows. If you put processes in place like you’re a large organization, it will be easier to scale up than if don’t.
10. Rome wasn’t built in a day so don’t expect your startup to be a success overnight. Enjoy the process and the journey.
11. Always seek to start and maintain good relationships and quickly end toxic ones.
12. Your mental and physical health is very important. If any of them is negatively affected, then you won’t function at your best. Always exercise regularly and have people you can talk to about whatever challenge that you’re going through. Get a mentor, join an entrepreneurship support group, do anything to ensure that you’re mentally and physically sound.
#GraemohFoods #Reflections #RoYE #DavidGaladima #agriculture
