Parliamo Bambini, producing locally manufactured furniture & clothing for children
Ifedayo Durosinmi – Etti is a sales and marketing expert with over 10 years of management and leadership experience working in the fashion, marketing and manufacturing Industries. She holds a first degree in Biochemistry and an MBA in Global Business. Prior to moving back to Nigeria in 2012, she worked with Arcadia Group Plc, a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London and Aspire Acquisitions. She later joined Nigerian Breweries (Heineken Operating Company in Nigeria) as a Young African Talent (YAT) and transitioned to their Corporate Communications Department as Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Support Manager where she successfully managed various corporate social responsibility and sustainability projects. Ifedayo is also an associate member of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON). With her passion for women and children, she launched Parliamo Bambini and Philos and Zoe, startups disrupting the baby and child industry through locally manufactured furniture and clothing for children with the aim of reducing poverty, empowering our youth and promoting access to quality education in Nigeria and Africa.
Growing up
Growing up for me was amazing. My Dad is a Chemical Engineer and my Mum is a Lawyer. At a very young age, he left a job at Mobil to start his own business while my mum had a couple of businesses growing up. But it’s so funny how even though both my parents were entrepreneurs, I never thought about being an Entrepreneur. I always wanted to get a blue collar job and just rise to the top in my career. It is funny how I’m following his footsteps. My mum smiles through every situation. I think I got that from her. No matter the challenge, I always took for a way to push through. She has a very humble and kind spirit. One thing my parents did not joke with was quality education. They believed that was the best gift they could give their children. They also made me believe at a very young age that I could be anything I wanted to be and till date they still support whatever decision I make and give me advice whenever they can.
Why the decision to go into locally manufactured children furniture and clothing line?
When I had my first child, I bought her furniture from a company in London and it cost so much. At the time, that was the norm, so I did not think anything of it. So I shipped it into Nigeria. When it got to Nigeria, I got a call from Customs saying it will cost me a certain amount to clear because furniture was contraband. I thought to myself, ‘How did I not know this? How does everyone else do it? We then said we’d find a way to reduce the cost for other mothers. At first, we struck a deal with the company I bought my furniture from and they gave us huge discounts at the time and we started getting orders because our rates were more affordable than others available in the market and we got quite a number of customers. But one day, my partner and I thought to ourselves that we could actually start producing our own line of baby furniture in Nigeria and we will be even more affordable. We did our research and we just went in. The rest is history.
Response so far?
The response so far has been amazing and we cannot thank God enough. Since we launched in 2015, we have never had a time when we were actively looking for customers. The demand is there, we just need to supply.
Your passion for fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development goals
As a result of my background in Biochemistry and an MBA in Global Business, I have been privileged to understand the importance of sustainability through some of the courses I took and coincidentally, I worked as the Corporate Social Responsibility and Support Manager at Nigerian Breweries for about 4 years, so Sustainability has not only become a part of me, it has become top priority in anything I do. It simply means that I work in a way that my personal and business operations solve the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is very important that we all work this way. The Sustainable Development Goals are a set of 17 interrelated global goals to end poverty, fight inequality, injustice and tackle climate change by 2030. I am passionate about contributing positively to these goals because they will give a chance to end poverty and ensure human right and dignity is respected.
Challenges
One of our major challenges is Talent Management. It is very difficult to find talented educated people in our industry who will understand our vision. Another challenge is scaling in our industry in Nigeria; there is also the challenge of lack of infrastructure. Nigeria lacks the basic infrastructure and logistics to support entrepreneurship. If you must run a business in Nigeria, you must have the financial muscle to support your own infrastructure. To manufacture locally, you need to provide your own electricity, water supply and other amenities that makes business operation run smoothly. This single issue lengthens the time frame from initial planning to full business operations when you want to compare it to developed countries. This also eats into your profit as a Startup and sometimes, it is difficult to plan because there are no certainties.
How do you intend to make your business global?
We intend to take the business global first by standardizing all our products to meet international requirements. We also have hopes of collaborating with international companies through distributorship agreements or franchising.
How are you able to reach an understanding with your partner when it comes to implementation of ideas?
As partners, we have grown to understand our strengths, so when it comes to implementation of ideas, we work with each other’s strengths and go with the option of the person who is better skilled in that area but in cases where we feel strongly about a certain issue, we either speak to our accountant and business consultant or a Mentor.
Where do you see this business in few years to come?
I see both businesses becoming household names in Africa. I see them as the next Mothercare in Africa. I see it becoming the first point of contact for African mothers for both our products, services and even growing online community. Sometimes motherhood takes a toll on you, and it’s awesome to be able to discuss with other people who have walked your walk.
Starting up and where you are now, what is the difference? What have you learnt?
My 3 years of being a business owner has been a time of growth, personally and business wise. I have learnt not to take things too seriously and that the sky is truly big enough, I have learnt to document processes and procedures, I have learnt that you cannot know it all, I have also learnt to share my problems. I’m not the kind of person that will say ‘Ah, If you have a problem, don’t let anyone know’. You should have a trusted person because sometimes, things will get hard but most importantly, I have learnt that you need God, people, networks (GPN) to thrive as an entrepreneur.