How i became a mogul from a #13,000 business..
This is a true life story of Tayo Ayinla a civil engineering graduate who resigned from his job, to start a soap making business. As expected, his beginning was rough. Born into a polygamous family, and lived in Amukoko, Lagos. Tayo Ayinla learnt early in life how to cope with poverty.
But today, the 44-year-old man, who graduated as a civil engineer from the University of Ilorin, is now an employer of labour. He owns Wise Trust International Limited and Bawoen Trust Limited, a real estate firm in Abuja. He has 103 people, including six graduates and 23 professionals in his employment. The business has now expanded to include real estate development, book publishing and training. He is also sponsoring seven less privileged Nigerians in tertiary institutions across the country.
He had started a soap-making business with N13, 000 after he resigned his appointment with HFP, an engineering firm in Lagos. After his mandatory national service with National Youth Service Corps in Jos, Plateau State, he got a job at HFP Engineering in Ikota, Lagos in 1995.
"I worked for HFP Engineering for one year before I resigned in 1996," he said.
"I resigned the job because it exposed me to a lot of risks. To be able to join the staff bus, I must be at the bus stop by 5:50am and the bus location is at Moshalasi by a hotel, where you have a lot of hoodlums popularly called area boys who specialise in snatching bags and attacking people.
I had made up my mind like Esther in the Bible, who says ‘If I perish I perish," Ayinla who was in Lagos on Saturday to present his new books to the public said.
"I was not motivated to resign but I was frustrated by the condition of work, the risk attached to it and the fact that I had nothing to show for my work. My life was caged. In the same premises I worked, there I also ate. I received my salary there. No opportunity to eat or go on break outside the office premises and your salary is paid in cash, no need to interact with the bank. Then, I bought my first television set through leverage,payments instalments, it was difficult to buy things on cash," he said.
He said after he resigned a job that fetched him N2, 500 per month, he went to Mushin to learn soap-making. After the completion of the training, he started the business in his rented apartment.
"I resigned from HFP Engineering with nothing, but by sheer determination and commitment to succeed, I sold some of my household items to raise the sum of N13,000. I went for soap-making training in Mushin, where I paid N1, 200," he said.
Though he admitted that he faced a lot of challenges pushing the soap into the market, he said he did not have any fear of failure.
"The major challenge I faced was mastering the act of producing good soap and acceptability of the products, ability to get our own market share. Due to our capital base, we couldn’t package our products in a paper carton, I used polythene bags. Later, we bought used carton and turned it inside out to stamp our name on the plain side.
Another challenge Ayinla faced was lack of vehicle to distribute the products. He later overcame this when a friend agreed to sell his used car to him. "I deposited N50,000 for the car and from there, things started to change for the better as we were able to market and distribute the products better," he said.
But Ayinla admitted that he suffered a lot of insult from market women in his attempt to sell his products. "I was insulted many times, most especially by customers who underrated me. For instance, while in the soap business, I was already a graduate but my appearance never showed this, they looked down on me but I was never bothered. I just kept my focus and faith in God," he said.
In 2000, Ayinla got married to Roselyn, a HND graduate from Otukpo, Benue State and they relocated to Abuja a year after. According to him, they left for Abuja due to what he called ‘divine leading.’
At Abuja they got a makeshift structure, popularly called "batcher," and started food vending business. "We got an offer to pay the rent of the "shop" in arrears; we deployed our household cooking utensils with N10, 000 to start what we called then, ADONAI Kitchen in zone 4, Abuja. We started with three staff, my wife, a young boy that God led us to train and me.
But if starting up the soap business was difficult, the restaurant business proved much more challenging.
"It was tough. The first day we ventured into the food business, we only had enough money to buy garri and some vegetable. We bought N100 worth of meat and we asked the meat seller to cut it into 12 pieces. The profit of N20 was the only thing we went home with. It was tough. But we thank God today for His mercies," he said.
Asked to advise youths and unemployed graduates in the country, Ayinla said they should not limit themselves by their educational qualification and course of study.
"A lot of our youths went to school just because they wanted to be educated. My advice for youths is to look beyond salary job because the present job holders are not willing to leave and that’s the reason some of them falsify their ages.
I’ll advise that the youths should discover who they are in God. God created us for a purpose, and until you discover your own purpose, you cannot be contented in life. If you doubt me, ask the people stealing our commonwealth, they can never be contented. When a man discovers his assignment, competition dies forever in his life. You have no man on this earth to envy.
"The youths should be humble before God, to discover and understand what they have been wired to do on earth.Discover yourself, accept who you are and be ready to be who you are. Take actions on who you are, realising that there will be challenges on the road to success. Your conviction of who you are is the firepower to face every challenge.
"Despise not the days of little beginning. If the youths can commit 13 years of their lives to their passion, breakthrough will surely come. They should have a vision first, when there is a vision the provision will come," he said.
Ayinla had later told the gathering which included experts in financial coaching, Mr. Ayo Arowolo, Mr. Wale Adesola, who reviewed the book and Chief Raphael Aina, his uncle that he wrote the book titled, ‘Secrets of Building lasting Wealth’ and ‘Passion Driven’ to share the principles that he deployed to become a success in life.
"I don’t give people money because I know that money cannot meet man’s need. It is knowledge and ideas that can achieve that. I have tested these principles and I believe that anybody that can apply them in his or her life will succeed," he said.
To curtail graduate unemployment in the country, Ayinla advised the Federal Government to introduce entrepreneurial study into the curriculum of the nation’s secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
"It should be a compulsory course that must be taught by entrepreneurs with proofs," he said.
He also advised youths in polygamous homes or those who are deprived in one way or the other, to be patient, disciplined, honest and have faith in God.
"I have been there before so they should not lose hope," Ayinla who grew up with his mother and grandmother in Omupo said.
"I am from a polygamous family. My father has three wives and my mother is number one. In most African settings, it’s always challenging for a man to successfully keep more than a wife under the same roof. My mother’s children had to move to the village to school when the second wife arrived. It was challenging but it is not what you can change at that tender age," he said.
Source: Punch
But today, the 44-year-old man, who graduated as a civil engineer from the University of Ilorin, is now an employer of labour. He owns Wise Trust International Limited and Bawoen Trust Limited, a real estate firm in Abuja. He has 103 people, including six graduates and 23 professionals in his employment. The business has now expanded to include real estate development, book publishing and training. He is also sponsoring seven less privileged Nigerians in tertiary institutions across the country.
He had started a soap-making business with N13, 000 after he resigned his appointment with HFP, an engineering firm in Lagos. After his mandatory national service with National Youth Service Corps in Jos, Plateau State, he got a job at HFP Engineering in Ikota, Lagos in 1995.
"I worked for HFP Engineering for one year before I resigned in 1996," he said.
"I resigned the job because it exposed me to a lot of risks. To be able to join the staff bus, I must be at the bus stop by 5:50am and the bus location is at Moshalasi by a hotel, where you have a lot of hoodlums popularly called area boys who specialise in snatching bags and attacking people.
I had made up my mind like Esther in the Bible, who says ‘If I perish I perish," Ayinla who was in Lagos on Saturday to present his new books to the public said.
"I was not motivated to resign but I was frustrated by the condition of work, the risk attached to it and the fact that I had nothing to show for my work. My life was caged. In the same premises I worked, there I also ate. I received my salary there. No opportunity to eat or go on break outside the office premises and your salary is paid in cash, no need to interact with the bank. Then, I bought my first television set through leverage,payments instalments, it was difficult to buy things on cash," he said.
He said after he resigned a job that fetched him N2, 500 per month, he went to Mushin to learn soap-making. After the completion of the training, he started the business in his rented apartment.
"I resigned from HFP Engineering with nothing, but by sheer determination and commitment to succeed, I sold some of my household items to raise the sum of N13,000. I went for soap-making training in Mushin, where I paid N1, 200," he said.
Though he admitted that he faced a lot of challenges pushing the soap into the market, he said he did not have any fear of failure.
"The major challenge I faced was mastering the act of producing good soap and acceptability of the products, ability to get our own market share. Due to our capital base, we couldn’t package our products in a paper carton, I used polythene bags. Later, we bought used carton and turned it inside out to stamp our name on the plain side.
Another challenge Ayinla faced was lack of vehicle to distribute the products. He later overcame this when a friend agreed to sell his used car to him. "I deposited N50,000 for the car and from there, things started to change for the better as we were able to market and distribute the products better," he said.
But Ayinla admitted that he suffered a lot of insult from market women in his attempt to sell his products. "I was insulted many times, most especially by customers who underrated me. For instance, while in the soap business, I was already a graduate but my appearance never showed this, they looked down on me but I was never bothered. I just kept my focus and faith in God," he said.
In 2000, Ayinla got married to Roselyn, a HND graduate from Otukpo, Benue State and they relocated to Abuja a year after. According to him, they left for Abuja due to what he called ‘divine leading.’
At Abuja they got a makeshift structure, popularly called "batcher," and started food vending business. "We got an offer to pay the rent of the "shop" in arrears; we deployed our household cooking utensils with N10, 000 to start what we called then, ADONAI Kitchen in zone 4, Abuja. We started with three staff, my wife, a young boy that God led us to train and me.
But if starting up the soap business was difficult, the restaurant business proved much more challenging.
"It was tough. The first day we ventured into the food business, we only had enough money to buy garri and some vegetable. We bought N100 worth of meat and we asked the meat seller to cut it into 12 pieces. The profit of N20 was the only thing we went home with. It was tough. But we thank God today for His mercies," he said.
Asked to advise youths and unemployed graduates in the country, Ayinla said they should not limit themselves by their educational qualification and course of study.
"A lot of our youths went to school just because they wanted to be educated. My advice for youths is to look beyond salary job because the present job holders are not willing to leave and that’s the reason some of them falsify their ages.
I’ll advise that the youths should discover who they are in God. God created us for a purpose, and until you discover your own purpose, you cannot be contented in life. If you doubt me, ask the people stealing our commonwealth, they can never be contented. When a man discovers his assignment, competition dies forever in his life. You have no man on this earth to envy.
"The youths should be humble before God, to discover and understand what they have been wired to do on earth.Discover yourself, accept who you are and be ready to be who you are. Take actions on who you are, realising that there will be challenges on the road to success. Your conviction of who you are is the firepower to face every challenge.
"Despise not the days of little beginning. If the youths can commit 13 years of their lives to their passion, breakthrough will surely come. They should have a vision first, when there is a vision the provision will come," he said.
Ayinla had later told the gathering which included experts in financial coaching, Mr. Ayo Arowolo, Mr. Wale Adesola, who reviewed the book and Chief Raphael Aina, his uncle that he wrote the book titled, ‘Secrets of Building lasting Wealth’ and ‘Passion Driven’ to share the principles that he deployed to become a success in life.
"I don’t give people money because I know that money cannot meet man’s need. It is knowledge and ideas that can achieve that. I have tested these principles and I believe that anybody that can apply them in his or her life will succeed," he said.
To curtail graduate unemployment in the country, Ayinla advised the Federal Government to introduce entrepreneurial study into the curriculum of the nation’s secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
"It should be a compulsory course that must be taught by entrepreneurs with proofs," he said.
He also advised youths in polygamous homes or those who are deprived in one way or the other, to be patient, disciplined, honest and have faith in God.
"I have been there before so they should not lose hope," Ayinla who grew up with his mother and grandmother in Omupo said.
"I am from a polygamous family. My father has three wives and my mother is number one. In most African settings, it’s always challenging for a man to successfully keep more than a wife under the same roof. My mother’s children had to move to the village to school when the second wife arrived. It was challenging but it is not what you can change at that tender age," he said.
Source: Punch
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