Interview: ‘We help businesses sell their brands through digital platforms’

Timmy Oluwunmi is the creative director/ CEO of TIVS Digital, a Lagos-based creative agency that designs websites, writes software and manages digital advertising for businesses. In this interview with AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE, he speaks about his company and how it has fared over the years.

Starting

We started full operations six months ago but I have been in business for about 10 years now. We started with few hands, but now, we have expanded to 12 staff. I started working from my house until we moved to a very small office space. At the moment we have expanded to a bigger office.

Products/Services

TIVS is a digital agency that is into advertising using the social media platforms, website and internet, which are the present-day trend, where big and medium sized companies connect to their customers especially the younger generation using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, and Snapchat, among others. We help businesses sell their brands. A lot of people chat on mobile phones and businesses use such mediums to connect to them. This is where TIVS comes in.

Motivation

I have always been a lover of tech and gadgets. I created a car and oven when I was younger and it was featured in some newspapers back then. The growth of technology and creativity also inspired me to do what I’m doing today. During my school days, I used to create websites for free. People have passion for different things but I love to create new things.

Impact

We have worked with quite a number of financial institutions, universities, polytechnics, insurance companies, private businesses, individuals, and hotels but currently we have a retainer-ship with four companies in the financial sector and interior decoration. One of the things that stand us out has been our responsiveness. We respond to clients’ needs round-the-clock. For instance, if a client calls at 1:00 am, we are there and this has been a good selling point. We buy laptops and mobile internet to enable our staff work while at home.

We have been working with First City Monument Bank (FCMB) for the past six years. We handle their social media pages, their digital campaign and design their outdoor materials and are already in talk for renewal. Bank of Industry (BoI) has been working with us for two years now. We started working with Cordros Capital this year and have started talking about renewal. We are very grateful to our clients for trusting in our brand and our services.

Challenges

Erratic power supply has been a major challenge and we run our business on generator and inverter. Our biggest challenge is not having very reliable internet; that is why we use about three different telecom service providers so that when one is down, we switch to another. Sometimes we have someone go outside to look for signal due to slow internet. Though the situation has improved, we are not there yet given the fact that we are competing in a global space that has gone far ahead of us.    

Also, there is this issue of being able to get the right hands from the labour market. Most times, we see people that have the passion while some want the job to earn a living without passion. We work round-the-clock and it’s difficult to get people that have that niche.

There is this issue of double taxation, where we are forced to pay to the local government, state and federal government. This is in addition to the security levies that small businesses are forced to pay and such piles up the bill we pay on monthly basis.

The scarcity of foreign exchange is another challenge because our business is built around forex. There are online adverts that we pay in dollars and it has been quite tough. The issue of the limit of transaction with credit cards is also a big challenge to us. For instance, if a client gives you a business of $2,000 it becomes difficult to achieve it given the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) limitations to $100 card transfer per month. 

Growth of Digital media in Nigeria

It has been very tremendous because a lot of small businesses in Nigeria are now willing to use the digital platform to reach out to their consumers especially when many of them cannot afford to pay for billboard, TV advert, etc. The digital platform is also playing a big role in our political area as well. We are hoping that the environment would become more enabling for small businesses to thrive.

Educational background

I was privileged to have attended a very good primary school and six different secondary schools. After secondary school, I got admission into University of Lagos to study Mathematics under the Faculty of Education, but that did not sound good and I switched to Yabatech, where I studied Computer Science. Studying in Yaba Tech helped me to realign my career and passion started from there. Upon graduation, I went to study in South Africa and obtained a Digital Certification in SA as a Digital Marketer.

Advice to start-ups

There are people who say they want to be like me but I believe that the difference between them and I is taking the actual step. Whatever career you choose to go into, you need to carve a niche for yourself and be responsive. Do not promise more than you can do. Try to start small and the feedback you get from that would help you to grow. One of our success factors has been referrals and we have not done some sort of marketing but people who have worked with us have been referring new customers to us.

Also, try to have a Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram. Use these channels to tell your friends what you do. Register an enterprise because it helps to show how serious you are and train people to help you build your business.