THE MAN WHO CRASHED PRICES OF LUXURIOUS FURNITURE IN NIGERIA

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.

KOFFI: HOW COMEDY CAN ALLEVIATE UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

Koffi

To the average person in contemporary Nigeria, at the mention of the name: Koffi, comedy, laughter, fun and more fun comes to mind. Until a recent encounter with him, like many people, one was oblivious of the fact that this gifted artiste knows far more than just stand-up comedy.

His voice filled the room as he started speaking. He could easily be shortlisted in any broadcast audition. With a business-like look he responded to questions in such a swift, eloquent yet calm manner that leave one truly convinced that this chap knows his onions and is fully abreast with happenings in the entertainment sector and beyond.

Born in Nigeria to a Nigerian dad and Togolese mom, Koffi Idowu-Nuel (AKA Koffi Tha Guru) in this exclusive chat spoke about his formative years, professional style, his works and more…

His introduction really show his versatility in the entertainment industry, a feat very few in contemporary Nigeria ca boast of.

“I am Nigeria’s most versatile comedian, actor, singer, producer, director and ‘Righter’ (like a human rights activist) I am a ‘righter’ of wrongs. Anything I see that is wrong, I talk about it in my own way, through comedy, through music, the things I write and on every platform I have. I am trying to see that this new generation does not entirely go astray because we are losing a lot of values in our society. That’s who I am.”

Koffi Tha Guru

Koffi tha Guru is a unique brand. Besides his usual laugh-laugh stuff, he comes a tinge of instruction laced with philosophy.

“Most comedians are seen as social commentator, some do it strictly just to entertain. But I am different. I make sure that by the time I leave the stage, I leave you with a message. I leave you with something to think about, something to reflect upon.”

He seemed so comfortable and happy with his comedy style that he compared it to teaching. “People always ask me what I would have been if not a comedian. I tell them I would have been a teacher. I like to use my medium to express responsible thoughts.”

As he spoke he continually displayed mien of a top executive, board room guru. The voice, the attention, body language, and movement. I was in actual sense sitting before a different Koffi. This one appeared so coordinated, very well-informed, blunt and a straight-to-the-point kind of Koffi. One could not but ask him if he had always known he would be a comedian?

“I didn’t know I was going to be a comedian. I think fate and life happened and this is God’s wish I am not a man who pursued a particular vocation. The only think I wished to be was to be a pharmacist. When I was in JSS 3, and preparing to write my junior secondary examination, I lost one of my aunts. I asked myself why someone should just die of tuberculosis. I felt it was my duty to grow up and right those wrongs. I need to be able to create an antidote. You when one are young he normally has a lot of pipe dreams.”

Albeit very good in the arts, he still wanted to be a pharmacist. Advice from parents fell on deaf hears as he proceeded to sciences. Professional destination was still Pharmacy but JAMB, the Nigerian university entrance examination was not as favorable as expected hence he got admitted to read Chemistry at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

As fate would have it, it was while studying Chemistry at UNILAG that the journey into the realms of entertainment commenced. “It was in the process of studying Chemistry that I discovered the stage and I joined “Theatre 15” in UNILAG. Here, I started grooming and learning the ropes of trying to be a better stage manager and master instead of doing it the normal ways I use to do it. You know, before school, I used to anchor small parties and events for my friends”.

All these while, people already knew him to be a jokester, a very funny guy. However, he didn’t foresee this was going to be a vocation. He just wanted to finish schooling and carry on with life. But before he graduated, he was already getting paid. He was already a made person. He just had to wait for the right time to blossom and that happened at the right time.

For Koffi, comedy started first. Shortly afterwards, he took interest in singing popular songs in funny ways. This also increased his fan base as they saw this act as an extension of his comedy.

Overtime, he seemed to have perfected the act of singing so well that Koffi Tha Guru have a music albums (called Ijinle – the 12^th commandment) to his credit. According to him, his next album, Collaborashun which promises to be a hit is a compilation of several songs he made with different people. The album will feature the likes of: Ali Baba Klint da Drunk, Stella Damasus, Ajasa, Nigga Raw Sound Sultan, Nomoloss, Bovi, Omobaba, Fatai Rollin’ Dollars, and so on. Collaborashun will be a 20 track compilation.

The artiste who will be 40 in the first quarter of 2017 believes “Music is an expression of fun and another medium to reach where comedy cannot reach. Comedy is language based and environment controlled. There is a limit to how I can handle comedy in Igbo-land. There is a limit to how I can handle comedy in Ghana but music crosses all barriers”. Drama also travels far. But comedy has limitations”.

Besides entertainment what else does he do? His response was quick and swift: “Nothing”. According to him he is almost always choked with things to do. “My companies run productions. We are involved in work day in day out. “If I am not doing my regular paid jobs (stand-up comedy, MC, etc) I will be involved in one form of production or another”.

His company, Workerman Entertainment, is on the verge of launching Nigeria’s first online comedy radio and television stations. They are also making serious efforts to open different platforms of entertainment in the country. One major achievement in this regards, is the monthly comedy show: Koffi Comedy Nite Live. This show comes up every last Saturday of the month at Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos by 6pm. Here, established and upcoming comedians are given the platform to express themselves.

Koffi believes that if well encouraged, comedy can be a major employer of Labour in Nigeria. “Comedy is the mainstay of a dead soul. If somebody is dying right now ad you give him the right doze of humour, he will come back alive. Doctors recognize the need of humour. It helps the body too pump blood. It help the rejuvenating processes. A man without laughter in his life is a dead man.

“If we encourage comedians in the right way, it will greatly solve the unemployment problem. I for instance produce a lot of programmes and I have the avenue to bring them out I will be able to produce more and enlighten people and give them much more. The more am able to do the more I will be able to employ. Wale Adenuga Production, for instance, how many people did they employ? A lot! With different programmes. So that’s what comedy can do.

“My company, Fun Media, is known for comedy content, we do anything that has to do with fun. So if we are encouraged, we would do, Ali Baba would do, Basket Mouth would do, Bovi would do, AY would do, Teju Baba Face would do. At this rate, do you know how many people we would be employing? So coed can actually alleviate some of the unemployment burden in the land just the same way Nollywood has done. Just the same way music has done. But no encouragement. We are still seen as sole entities because it is the same one guy that will come and crack all the jokes, sponsor himself, be the financier, be his own manager.

“In advanced countries the made comedians don’t even write their own jokes. They employ writers but here, a big shot comedian is stuck sometimes because in the process of running around for funds, venues, and everything, he is still the one to take care of his jokes”.

When asked to advise upcoming acts, Koffi gave a most unexpected response.

“I stopped advising upcoming people because at some point, I used to tell them don’t do this, don’t do that, but I now realized that I started sound like our fathers telling us don’t do this…, don’t do that… Rather you just need to encourage them to believe in that passion. Something you are saying is not right might be the vogue of the new age. For instance Baby Mama Syndrome is now acceptable. If you go out and start talking against it people will criticize you. Our fathers used to have several wives, we have just chosen not to. So the things you feel you should condemn is what society is celebrating. Nowadays, entertainment is for the mad, useless and crazy. They seem to celebrating stupid people more on social media than real people. So you don’t condemn anything anymore in the modern world.”

“I just tell every young person coming up, don’t try to be like Koffi. Aspire to be better than Koffi in that chosen field. Whatever I am doing that you are watching, do it better and let me learn from you again so that I can remain in business. We need to rub off on one another”.

He however, advised upcoming ones to apply the “P” principles:

Persevere-(You have to wait for your time)
Persistent-(You have to be resilient)
Prayer-(Put God first).

That’s the only way it can pay off. If you don’t do the first three “Ps” then you get another “P” that become a Problem. That‘s what I tell every young people. Follow these principles and everything will work well for you.