| Mr. Fidelis Ogbogbo, MD/CEO Rifi Food Ind. Nig. Lid |
Discover How Fidelis Ogbogbo Turned 1,000 Birds Into A Conglomerate Covering Several Businesses And How You Too Can!
For anyone who values financial security and ultimately desires financial freedom, creating at least
one additional stream of income is no longer a luxury. It has become a necessity.
And the good thing is that there are opportunities to diversify your business into several areas leveraging on the current business, and such that the businesses complement one another.
Mr. Fidelis Ogbogbo, MD/CEO Rifi Food Ind Nig Ltd captures the essence of the principle of multiple streams of income so well when from poultry business he started with 1,000 has expanded to several businesses, which complement one another and have become market leaders in their respective niches.
He shares his business experience with SD, including valuable ideas on how to start and succeed in some of the businesses, as well as how one can discover new business opportunities in the sector one is currently operating in, enjoy it!
Can we meet you?
Am an entrepreneur, we deal on agro allied, we have a farm, we produce feed for different animals, and it is called Rifi Feed. We are also into construction; we produce Aglomar, which is a finished product that is used for plastering and painting of houses.
We are also into building block production, we just recently started production of cassava, we have a cassava mill where we process garri, cassava flour, cassava starch, and the cooled water starch for clothes, this is still in process though but the machines needed are all in place, and recently, we entered an agreement to supply a multinational company chilli pepper in large quantity. We cultivate, we procure, we process and supply
How did you start?
I have been venturing into several businesses for many years until I started Rifi Feed in 2001 and it has been upward movement from that date till now. I have never really believed in paid employment at any point in my life. I read Peace Study and Conflict Resolution from the Nigerian Open University, and before then I had sold used clothes in Yaba Market in Lagos, Nigeria.
I sold pure water, from there I went into running a restaurant business, but I started by first selling the food in coolers and walking around before I got the shop for the restaurant but towards the end of 2000 I came to a resolution that I was not going to continue with any of those businesses because I did not see a future in them, without knowing exactly what to do next, but I was so sure I was not going back to those businesses again. I gave out my shops - two of them - I gave them out for free to my neighbors because I wasn’t coming back.
With the little money on me, I made a trip to Ghana to see how possible it will be for me to travel to other European countries, but few months into that year I found my way back to Nigeria and I knew this was the Holy Spirit directing me back home. With a new mindset, I started again, buying bags and wrist watches from the popular Idumota market in Lagos Island, and coming to Ikeja to sell. I started with N2, 000, and by the end of the day I had N5, 000.
I was using the wrist watch to sell the bags, like a promo kind of stuff, if you buy a bag I will give you a wrist watch. I started with one set, came to Ikeja, sold it, went back to Idumota market, bought two sets, came again to Ikeja, sold it and went back again to Idumota and bought another three sets, which I took home for the day and used to start my marketing the next morning.
I was into that business for a while and making progress, and then I moved to Owode in Ogun state. I had some trainees that were now taking the materials out to sell for me while I focus on other things and getting the materials from the main market.
After a while, I discovered that some of the marketers were making away with my goods, some will not sell with profit, some stories of being attacked by hoodlums, there and then I started looking at other areas I can focus on.
This was how I decided to start a poultry farm and because of my versatility and the drive to succeed, I was producing quite fine, but my greatest challenge was disposing the birds after maturity. The few that we sold were on credit and the remaining continued to consume our food, because you can’t leave them to starve, and at this point of maturity their rate of consumption is out of this world.
So, if you have trained them to maturity stage and you cannot dispose them, you are in for a mess. So, I began to search for solution on how I could cut down on my expenses on feed production. Then we started making poultry feeds.
One of the products we used in producing feeds is noodles’ waste. These wastes cost a lot of money too, so one day as I got to the company to buy the materials for our feed production, I discovered that they have several other wastes that could be very helpful for our feed mill production and to the company. It is a complete waste and they are even spending money to dispose of it. So, I had to apply for the collection of the waste, and that was how I got the exclusive right to be lifting the waste from the company.
From that one company we have been able to cover other similar companies that produce noodles both in Lagos and Ogun States, with more materials for us to produce our feeds. It also means that we have more clients because we have developed our products to meet the hunger needs of every animal in high nutritional value.
And because we also have poultry, piggery, goat farms we also use these feeds for our own animals, different farmers with their different needs, goats, dogs, fish, cow, pigs, chicken, etc, all of them come to us from all over the country to buy feeds. And we are still producing but we have also gone into other businesses.
At what point should you diversify your business or start another business?
For me, I started with poultry like I said earlier, and as I make progress I decided to go into production of feeds because I was having the challenge of not been able to dispose my birds on time after maturity, and after maturity their rate of feeding increases drastically.
So, because of this I went into animal feed production, and because I may not be the only person facing such challenge, I went into commercial production.
If I want to start a poultry farm now what are the things I need to know?
The fore knowledge of the business you want to do is very important, I don’t mean just head knowledge, a practical knowledge that even if you employ people to do it, you are sure they are doing the right thing. Then apart from the fore knowledge of the business, you must have a ready market to sell to after you have produced your chicken.
Poultry business is one business that if you have succeeded in raising your chick to maturity stage, and you are unable to dispose them by the following week, you will begin to eat your profit from the amount of feeds they will be consuming, in fact, if the second week meets them in your cage, you will start to eat your capital all in the bid to keep them alive.
It is either you have a pre contract with someone you will be producing for that as soon as they reach maturity stage you deliver, or you have a very good storage facility like a cold room or deep freezers and a means of generating your own electricity to power the cold room or freezers, so that you can kill, de-feather, and store them. It is not just about to produce or because you saw your neighbour going into poultry business you too want to start.
Also, please note that if you are going to be producing pullets, the type of birds that produce eggs, you have to make sure that at maturity you are on ground, or you have a trusted hand that will help in monitoring the birds and their eggs. If you are not mindful of these you may not break even at the end of the day because of theft. This kind of production takes a lot of time and this is why you have to know exactly what it is that you want to do.
How much does it cost to set up a medium scale poultry farm?
It also depends on the kind of birds you want to keep. If you are keeping cockerels, it will cost N50 for one so with N10, 000 you can start with 200 birds, but you have to also add the cost of what they will eat till maturity. For a broiler chick, a day old, will cost about N180 each, 180 times 200 birds, that will amount to N36, 000 and to feed that day old chick to maturity will require 4kilo of feed.
Because they were very cheap to buy I started with 1, 000 birds and they don’t eat much at that early stage in life but as they grow and get to maturity, you will understand that they are heavy eaters and that you need to dispose of them on time, because if you don’t, they eat so much that you will be so worried to be feeding/caring for them more than you own children, just to keep them alive because of your investment.
How lucrative is this business?
From my experience in the business, when people come to me for consultation, these are some of the things I tell them: the business is lucrative, let’s again assume that you started with 200 birds, mortality 10%, which will amount to 20 birds less or more depending on a lot of other factor. So, if 20 birds died, you will be left with 180 birds. And let us assume that you raised one chick with 4kilo of feed to maturity level, then 4kilos times, 200 birds that will give you 800kilos, we also assume that 50kilo (1bag) cost N4, 000. Therefore, N4,000 times 16bags of feeds, you will be spending N64, 000 on feeds.
Now, If you are to raise that 180 successfully and you sell at N1, 500 each during festive period, what you will have will be about N270, 000. If you remove all your expenses, you will still have some good amount of money, but like I said earlier, you have to know a lot about the business before you venture into it, so you can avoid a lot loop holes.
In my case I read about all the chicken birds that we were going to be dealing with, pullets, cockerels, and broilers, I studied their feed type and vaccines and medication, when to and how to administer, this helped my business to succeed.
How or why did you start the block industry?
When I saw the rate of our growth and expansion I knew it is only a matter of time we will become a conglomerate so, I cannot afford to go and be buying building blocks, so I went and did my research on what it will cost us to have a block molding machine, mixer and the pallets for the blocks, with less than N1million we were good to go, so we started and from there as we mould to do our projects people were coming to ask if we sell, that was how we started the building block business.
What does it cost to setup a block molding industry?
Like I said we needed structure in place for our own operations so, all our operation is seated on some acres of land, so we have a lot of construction going on every day, then we decided to get involved in the production of block, setting up to produce 3000 blocks per day will cost about N150, 000 for the molding machine, then another N150, for the engine that will power the molder, then you have the boards where you will mold the blocks on, it cost N150 each times 3000, that will cost you about N450, 000, and of course you should have a land and a structure to protect workers and your machines. N1million will be ok for a start.
Does it mean that I cannot go into any business that is not related to the one I am currently doing?
No, you can do any type of business even if they are not related but the most important thing is you must be able to ask yourself some definite questions and also provide definite answers to them, if you have all that it takes, you don’t have any problem, for me, I want my businesses to complement each other, so they are integrated, because I really don’t like to stress myself a lot.
Like our cassava processing mill, it really has no business with poultry farming if you look at it very well, but the peels from the cassava adds in the content of the feeds we produce, this doesn’t mean that someone that is into farming cannot do banking, it doesn’t mean you cannot go into forex trading, anything is possible if you have the means of monitoring the businesses, but you must have the fore knowledge of that business, either you are trained or you taught yourself.
What has been your experience in managing all these businesses together?
It’s like someone constructing a 20 story building, as the construction progresses, there is this push, anxiety that you will have to get to the completion stage, the beauty here again is because the businesses are interwoven, in our factory we are a conglomerate and some businesses will yet spring up because they are in the plan for the future, so there is really no stress at all.
Everyone in our employment knows what to do and this doesn’t mean that there is no challenge, but as the challenge comes, they help us grow or stay strong.
With the recent ban on importation of some items and dollar restriction, a very big multinational company has decided to be sourcing locally and they have partnered with us to be supplying them the major raw material for their production. This is in metric tons, and because of this development it has given us a push to speed up the completion of our facility as the company will be coming for inspection soon, so this also fosters growth.
It has helped us achieve our dream sooner than we expected, now this doesn’t mean that if your businesses are not interwoven that you are not in the right business, no, what I am saying is that you have to be sure of what you are doing so that you are not called jack of all trade but master of none.
For every business I venture into, I have practiced it by myself before I get people to come on board, that is before getting people to do it for me, so, I know what is involved and if I have employed someone to start doing it for me they cannot come and tell me what is not, and over the years we have been able to train lieutenants who know what to do at each point in time, so what we just do now is to supervise the operations, even in our branches in Port Harcourt.
How are you able to market your products?
Initially, it was very difficult because whenever we go to farmers asking them to buy the feeds, they felt reluctant because it was new to them. They were already used to the regular feeds and the traditional maize a source of energy for the chicken, but we were persistence even though the profit was not much then, we kept going out to inform farmers and introduce our feeds to them.
But now that there is a ban on importation, local content is selling, as I speak to you, we don’t even meet the demands of our customers anymore. You have to book ahead for you to get it, we have overcome that challenge of marketing, in all our products we have enough market for them now.
How did you start the cassava mill?
It is our quest to meet a need both in our farm and for others, we have a very large cassava farm where we produce garri from, and as a result of that it will not make any economic sense for us to be taking those cassava after harvesting to somewhere to mill them, so we decided to have our own mill and because we also have some farmers around us who will need our services.
You can own a cassava mill factory at the cottage level, but you can scale it up. Depending on your budget, there are different types of mills, there are manual, semi automated and the full automated machine. You need a piece of land, and you need storage for your garri after production. You also need a structure where you will install the machines.
You will need about N500, 000 or less to start a cassava grinding machine and the machine that will power the grinder can come within N300, 000. A presser is within N100, 000, then the structure and some other tools can come in less than N100, 000, and then you are good to go. And how much you can make per day will also be determined by your location.
Imagine if you are located in a village were probably you have several other mills or you are situated not too far from town and not too far from the villages, what you will be charging will definitely be different, but the truth is you will make your money if you are able to manage the business very well.
Advice to young Nigerians and would be entrepreneurs
You need to be patient, don’t allow this get rich quick syndrome to enter you, do not be in a hurry. I discovered that if you get anyone that says he or she needs to do business and you tell them that you will show them what to do for two years and after they will make money, I am sure that you are not likely going to get anyone’s attention, be patient and start small and keep at making progress all the way up.
It will get to a time when you have gathered enough momentum and when you look back you will appreciate that you started small.
Then you need to trade with integrity, let people know you for your words. Since I started business I have never had any issue with anyone that gave me money and I didn’t deliver as promised. I told you earlier that people pay in advance to get our products delivered, it doesn’t matter how good your product is, if you lack integrity that business will suffer
How do you cope with your responsibility as a father, husband, a boss and a brother?
My home is my safe heaven, I hardly receive visitors at home, it is a restricted place, exclusively for the family, once am home am at peace and this is why my business operation is between 8am to 2pm daily and from 2pm I return to my family and my ministry because I am also a minister of God. I don’t joke with my family and give to Caesar what is Caesars, I don’t stay out late, if not for ministry you cannot meet me outside my home by 7pm.
Doing all of these businesses together, what have you achieved that you can say is worth the while?
Needless to say that God has been faithful to me and to us as a company, we run scholarship program every year to minister to children whose parent are unable to pay their school fees and it’s in 7 digits figure. We have been able to minister to divers needs as they arise. My ministry is my business and my business is my ministry, I have sat down at some point to check our expenses and I discovered that at times I have not spent N10, 000 on myself but for the ministry God gave me, we have spent over a million Naira, and this is on a monthly bases.
My joy is that we are able to touch lives with what God has blessed us with and we will continue until Jesus comes, not relenting at all, we don’t try to accumulate wealth but we dispense, and that has been the driving force.
Culled From SuccessDigest
No comments:
Post a Comment