5 Minutes with Entrepreneur: Cakeflair CEO, Juliet Nnamdi-Uzoezie
Sometimes the craving for a cupcake just hits you. You are going through your day, managing projects, getting things done when WHAM! It hits you - you've got to have a cupcake. Last week, when that craving hit our office, we called Cakeflair, a cake couture company based in Ikeja. Entrepreneur and CEO Juliet Nnamdi-Uzoezie personally delivered a box of freshly made red velvet cakes to our office door; although she had more deliveries to make on the Island (VI), Mrs. Nnamdi-Uzoezie chatted with us for a few minutes about her experiences in leading a successful small business in Lagos.
JA: Cakeflair is a couture cake company, meaning we specialize in high end cakes - wedding cakes, birthday cakes, etc. It's a great market but we've also noticed a trend for high-street desserts like cupcakes, which are less frill, and more of an impulse buy. The company has been operating since January 31st, 2003 but I've been in the industry for over 12 years now. We're still an SME and we're running on pure passion and delivering quality baked goods for our clients.
How have you financed the business?Personal savings. I tried to go the formal route and get a small business loan from various banks but they required double the loan amount in collateral. If I had double the loan amount in collatory, I doubt I would have approached the bank for a loan.
That's a major issue effecting SMEs here. If you asked for N5 million to run your business, why would a bank expect you to have N10 million in collateral to secure the loan? Wouldn't you just use that N10m if you had it instead of approaching a bank? How have you financed your operations without access to bank funds?Well large orders have helped. Sometimes one or two couture cakes can carry us for a couple of months. Recently, an investor approached me to invest in the company in return for equity. I've accepted the offer but we are still working out the terms of the agreement.
What would an injection of financing do for you right now?We want to ramp up production and work on corporate governance. On the production side, We need a machine called a muffin depositor. With that, Cakeflair could crank out 2,000 cupcakes a day! On the corporate governance side, we want to install proper structures - Board of Directors, Staff Compensation, Client Reward Program, marketing strategy, etc.
What are some of the challenges you face in your business?Aside from funding, staffing is a huge issue. Not only do you have to spend time and money training your staff, sometimes you also have to work on changing the mindsets of the people who you hire. I also deal with the issue of people not seeing the bigger idea - I want to create a faceless business. Here [in Nigeria], people tend to want a business where they are the oga (boss) and everyone knows the business by that face. I want to build a franchise business with the same underlying model, with my vision and value system at its core but with anyone with the same vision and value systems able to run their own Cakeflair.
Finally, how are you marketing your business?Guerilla marketing. Direct marketing and referrals. We benefit from lots of repeat business. I spend so much time on the phones, keeping up with clients, drumming up new business, blogging, etc. I've just recently done a segment on Saturday Cookout, on Smooth 98.1 with Sola, which was great. I do exhibitions once a year and lots of freebies and sampling to enthusiasts. A lot of the tactics I employ I learned from business school (Lagos Business School MBA program, Class of 2008). I did the 18 month part timer program and it was amazing for learning how to take my business to the next level.
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SHARE YOUR OPINION - EE community, we want to hear from you. Do you share some of the experiences Juliet mentioned? Have you found solutions? What do you think about the market Cakeflair is in? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!
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