Jennifer Agbaza: Social media, consistency in quality drive my Cush Luxury

Jennifer Agbaza is the founder and chief executive officer of Cush Luxury Redefine, a creative and innovative bedding brand in the country.

Jennifer was inspired to establish Cush Luxury out of the desire to get good sheets for her bed, which according to her, helps improve the quality sleep and rest. In trying to achieve that, she identified a gap in the country’s bedding space. According to her, the inability to find quality bed sheets and kitchen wares in the market inspired her to establish Cush Luxury Redefine in 2015.

“As a young person, when you get married, the first thing you want to do is to change your bed sheets and kitchen wares. Getting good sheets was very difficult for me to find after my wedding. All the sheets I bought from big retail stores started to fade and wore after three to four washes,” Jennifer said.

“I wanted to buy sheets that are really soft and nice and would not fade away after washing twice. Every individual deserves a good sleep. We don’t need to compromise our sleep after the day’s stress,” she said.

To start the business, she started taking online courses on fabrics for bedding and duvets. She visited some bedding brands in Europe to see their factories and fabrics. After equipping herself with the knowledge of the business, Jennifer started her own brand.

Jennifer started her business with no initial capital. She began by collecting upfront payment from clients to purchase fabrics for the bedding. She told Start-Up Digest that her first upfront payment was N17, 000, which she spent on fabrics and making the beddings.

Jennifer sources her fabrics locally and also imports.

The Biochemistry graduate said that her business had grown since starting and her client base had increased tremendously.

She said that now, she could afford to sew bedding and duvet without collecting upfront payments any longer from clients and got paid at delivery.

She said social media had helped in increasing her client base as most of her customers got her products via various online platforms, stating that large chunk of customers patronised her via the Instagram platform. Also, she noted that the business had got a lot of referrals from family and friends and exciting customers who had used her products.

Jennifer advertises bedding and duvets she produces on various social media channels before they are sold. Jennifer also uses the Konga online platform to sell her products across the country.

“Social media has really impacted my business positively despite that the Nigerians have not fully embraced e-commerce. Social media helps you to get a client that is not even looking out for your product initially,” the biochemist said.

However, it has not all been rosy for Jennifer as the country’s infrastructure gaps have impacted negatively on her business. She said logistics had remained the major challenge confronting her business, reducing her revenue and profits.

“Logistics is a major challenge for me since I sell most of my products online and clients requesting for delivery. We have poor road network all across the country and this has increased our cost of production. Duvets are bulky,” she further stated.

She likewise said lack of finance for entrepreneurship in Nigeria was a challenge. She told Start-Up Digest that she planned to expand her business by creating her own production arm of the business but she was unable to do it because of the finance involved.

“There is also lack of trust among Nigeria. As soon as there is a delay due to logistics weaknesses, the clients start calling us fraudsters. Nigerians need to open up their minds to the digital world completely,” Jennifer said.

“We do not have any problem as Nigerians buy from online stores overseas and get delivery delays for three or four weeks but we do that when it is a Nigerian company,” She added.

Jennifer has three full-time staff and two part-time members currently working with Cush Luxury Redefine.

The biochemists-turned- entrepreneur said consistency in quality had helped her business to grow in less than two years since it commenced operation.

“Consistency in quality has helped my business to grow, despite starting when the country was in recession. I ensure international standards in producing sheets for my clients. At first it was difficult to convince people but after trying my products, they began to advertise them because of the quality, creativity and consistency in our brand,” she said.

Jennifer said that the country’s fashion industry had the potential to diversify the economy away from oil, while calling on the government to provide funds for businesses, especially start-ups.

She stated that infrastructure and finance were key solutions to un-locking the potential in entrepreneurship in the country.

When asked about her organisation’s expansion plans, Jennifer told Start-Up Digest that the business was currently working on a collection that would soon be unveiled. Also, she said the business planned to establish its showroom across major cities in the country.

When asked her advice for other entrepreneurs, she said it was never too early for anybody to start any idea, calling on them to stop procrastinating and trying to figure everything out from the beginning to the end.

“You can’t really figure it out from the beginning to the end. Just start the business and learn from your mistakes to make things better. Ability to learn from the mistakes is what entrepreneurship is all about,” the young entrepreneur said.

 

Josephine Okojie