He would
always introduce himself as a carpenter (which he truly is) so that the man
with narrow mindset cringes and turns away in disgust leaving only the
enlightened and instructive mind at ease and eager to know him more.
This is the
story of Paul Olusola Akinola, a
mechanical engineer turned carpenter whose passion for carpentry took him very
deep into the nitty-gritty and architectural technicalities of the profession,
a profession he loves so much. With his five year old Possible and Affordable
Furnishing Solutions Limited, five branches and over one hundred and
fifty workforce, this jolly young CEO has been able to revolutionize the
furniture-making business in Nigeria, albeit ruffling few feathers.
In a twenty minutes
chat with this CEO, who for his unassuming and jovial posture could easily be mistaken
for one of the general staff, he spoke about formative years of his company, Possible
and Affordable Furnishing Solutions Limited, how he was able to open
five viable branches (Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Uyo and Ibadan) of the
business within short time of operations, how he got antagonized by the Chinese
for crashing the hitherto very high cost of exotic home furniture and other business
challenges.
EARLY STAGE
As he
graduated from the university, little did he know that he would one day own
and manage one of the biggest and fastest growing furniture business in Nigeria.
For Paul, studying Mechanical Engineering and getting a good job thereafter
would have sufficed. He never foresaw anything different.
“Before
studying mechanical engineering, the same year, I had the opportunity of
studying a furniture related course. I got admission to study Wood Processing
Engineering at the University of Ibadan. There I was for a month before gaining
admission to study mechanical engineering at the University of Benin (UNIBEN).
So if I could see the future I would have remained with Wood Processing
Engineering which would have been a better course than mechanical engineering
since I was going to be making money from wood later in future. But who knows
the future? No one!”
He believes his knowledge of mechanical engineering greatly enhances his
business especially in the area of product quality and designs. Hence being
exposed to wood processing for about one month, studying mechanical engineering at
university level coupled with his passion and great desire to succeed resulted in
Possible and Affordable Furnishing Solutions.
“I believe I
am still do engineering because I do a lot of designs. Mechanical Engineering
is basically about designs and maintenance. The only aspect of mechanical engineering
I do till date is design. Almost all my products are my design. Almost all of
them. Without compromising quality, I design to fit into the economy and desire
of Nigerians, especially young Nigerians who happen to be our target market.”
NEW BUSINESS IDEA
After
graduation, Paul was into business development consulting and was doing pretty
well at it. He had elitist and very good clientele. However, a one
week trip to the Middle East exposed him to a new way of life viz-a-viz furniture.
“The citizens, despite their relatively low income, lived simple lifestyle with luxurious furnishings. Their furniture
were nice with straight cuts, just
like what we see in the movies. When I returned to Nigeria, I told my friend we can replicate same
here. So we started from one small office. We did a small design
in the office that caught the attention of a pastor”.
Impressed by
what he saw, he commissioned them to design his own office. The young chaps
were surprised to know that the office turned out to be a whole duplex. After the job was done another pastor who saw it was impressed and requested if they could do same for his hotel. They jumped at the
offer. With little amount paid them they discovered they didn’t have the
capacity to go ahead. But they had to think outside the box.
“We decided
to go to the Chinese. We were given three million to produce the furniture. We
visited about six companies in one day. They laughed at us saying three million
naira was far too small for our project.”
GENESIS
Frustrated,
after a deep thought, Paul soon realized it was a feasible project even with
the meagre resources. As a mechanical engineer, he told his friend, a circular
saw was the major tool they needed for the job. Fortunately, The Circular Saw was the
project he did at the university. So he put together a circular saw, they
bought woods and started cutting and making the furniture at the back of his
friend’s house and they delivered.
“Pastor (Mrs.)
Adeboye was the one that came to open the hotel. They went around and they were
impressed. I said if they could be this impressed, then let’s make a company
out of this. Then our own dreams started coming through. We started making
small tables for our own houses too.”
In addition
to his designing skills, he hired workers to do the jobs, supervised them and
also invested a lot in software. Using ingenuity, he took a closer look at the
Chinese and other products and tweaked them to Nigerian taste and budget.
CRASHING PRICES
To the
dismay of the Chinese businessmen, who hitherto dominated the Nigerian furniture-making
business, Paul crashed the price of fitted kitchen furniture in Nigeria. He
didn’t see the point selling them for over two million naira thereby making
very outrageous profit, when in actual sense the same unit could go for much
lesser with an appreciable profit margin.
“I broke
their back in the area of fitted kitchen in this country. The Chinese fought me
because I brought down the price of fitted kitchen furniture. Fitted kitchen then was a “mysterious”
thing. It was only the rich that had fitted kitchen. They called it Italian
Kitchen. This was just a name to deceive us. Just because it was fitted
and beautiful they called it Italian. They threatened me, but I told them they cannot threaten me in my
country. I made them know that the best they can do is to bring down their rates.
“Fitted
kitchen then was in millions. In a single year I brought the price from two
million five hundred thousand to between three hundred to four hundred thousand
naira. They came to me saying I should please save this business. I said NO. I
told them: Not against my people. You came from your country to cheat my people…
No, I shouldn’t join you. I want my people to live well and also enjoy the good
things of life.
“At Possible
and Affordable Furnishing Solutions, we don’t make outrageous profits.We rely on turnover.
“When they
saw they couldn’t beat us they started coming around to take photographs of our
designs. They take them to go and reproduce. I see a lot of my products
reproduced online. I see them and I am happy. After all, when I started I was looking
at their products; now they are looking at mine. I am happy. I think I have
achieved, sincerely.”
CHALLENGES
The first
challenge is that nobody believes in you when you start. Three to four years
ago, January 3rd to be precise, with documents in my hands I went from bank to
bank without positive result. It was very frustrating. No bank gave me audience. I knew I had all it takes but nobody believed in me”.
According to Paul,
the banks that turned him down at the beginning are now running head over heels
trying to out-smart themselves to offer him unsolicited loans. The offers
ranged from the purchase of power generating set, vehicles to other forms of loans. He told himself he didn’t
need their loan for anything because over the years he had conditioned himself to
expanding the business through his savings.
BREAKTHROUGH
For a
company as established as his, one tries to imagine how he was able to raise
initial capital. While some entrepreneurs would mention family and friends others
would say bank loans. But Paul’s response was different.
“I didn’t
raise any big money. I started with my living room as a
showroom. People travelled from Port Harcourt, Abuja and all parts of the country to my sitting
room.”
One
unforgettable experience for him was when a prospective elitist client travelled
from Port Harcourt to Lagos to see his showroom after being attracted by
postings on the company’s website. “When he got to my house I told him I didn’t
have a showroom and that my living was my showroom. He said wow and gave me a Hi-five.” He ignored the website attraction when he saw Paul’s
living room furniture. He and his wife opted to make payment there and then for the furniture.
“That was
how I started. I didn’t raise any big money. I was still sitting in my living
room believing God when I got my first major job with a blue chip company, Konga. They gave me a job to make over
their office. They were impressed with the job and gave me all their locations
in Lagos. I kept saving and saving. When I opened my Lagos showroom, the whole
duplex was empty. I had only one sofa set and it was not for sale. It was
actually built for my house but I had not carried it home. I sat on the sofa
and I sold millions. I know what I am selling and people believe in me.” Indeed he sells luxury for less.
“I didn’t
raise money. I started with what I had. It was painful, it was hard. There was
no fund raising. People believe you have to raise funds. No.
ADVICE
One. Love
what you do. Two. Integrity is key. Three. Don’t think it’s going to be easy, even if you are going
online. Four. You need to be ahead at all times.
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