I learnt secrets of business from working for others-Akinola Ogunsola, CEO, Possible and Affordable Furnishing Solution
What Akinola Paul Ogunsola does for a living is carpentry. He, however, describes it differently. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Possible and Affordable Furnishing Solution. There is no iota of doubt that his business is thriving at the high-end of the lifestyle furnishing business. Yet he did not arrive at this apogee by treading a beaten path. After all, he was a trained mechanical engineer and never had any basic training in woodwork. But today he is riding high in the business.
The Ondo State indigene in this interview explains to The Nigerian Xpress, the motivation and mindset that drive his business. He also gives an insight into the philosophy that set him on the path of success. He tells us more in this interview with Joy Anyim.
How did you come up with the concept of furniture making?
I studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Benin. Of course, there was a dearth of work in Nigeria. So, I went into things that I have passion for. I was doing business development consulting until I had the opportunity to travel to the Middle East. I saw the way they were living. They were living quite well. I found out that it does not cost them a fortune to live quite well. It occurred to me that it should not be difficult to live quite well in Nigeria. After spending some time there, I came back to Nigeria. I used the knowledge of mechanical engineering to put two and two together and came up with unique designing concepts. I started with my house. I did the first set of furniture for my house with my low income. If it could be possible for me, it would be possible for many people. It was from that, that I got the name of the company: Possible and Affordable.
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Since your designs are from foreign concept, how do you get the raw materials?
We import our raw materials but our designs are done here. Our designs are not popular. They may look alike. We could transfer some design, we might travel and see some designs that are good, and we can adapt it. We mostly design ourselves. We import raw materials like handles. Nobody produces them in Nigeria. In such cases, we just adapt it to Nigeria and produce.
What is the difference between you and the regular carpenter under a shed?
The carpenter out there does things just to survive. We are not in business to survive. Survival is far behind us. We do things with a mindset. We do things with understanding. It would be a waste of education if I have a degree in engineering and I can’t do something different from that carpenter. We are not out to just give people furniture and collect their money. No, we are not. Someone has come to my office and ordered 20 units of four pieces each of our chairs and I refused to deliver it. I told the woman I need to talk to you personally, the woman was shocked. She asked what my business was. Just send them and I will pay you, she said. I told the woman I don’t sell like that. I am not in this business just to sell. What would you really need 20 pieces of the chair for? Later we found out that she actually needed one of each of our unit of chairs as samples from those 20 units. We put education and the right mindset into it. We consider people before we come up with a concept or design for them. Above all, we put class into it. We design to meet these peoples’ need and comfort. A roadside carpenter will not consider those things. We don’t pride ourselves as selling furniture. Neither do we sell cheap. We sell affordable. That is why we don’t use “furniture company” but rather, we use furnishing.
How did you start the company?
We did not start big. We started small. I was operating from my house for four years before I had an office. My office space was my sitting room. People flew from Port Harcourt to Lagos to see furniture in my sitting room. They come and saw my house furniture that they had seen on the Internet, which they did not believe it was my house furniture; their belief was that it was cut from a magazine. People embark on a series of long journeys to see, if not to buy but to confirm what they had seen on the Internet. When they come and sit on the sofa, they don’t believe their eyes. Our showrooms are different from every other showroom in the world except someone is copying us. We set our showrooms to represent lifestyle, as if someone is living there. A lot of people have called me and asked for the truth; they ask me to tell them the truth about who lives in our showrooms after work hours. They are always in disbelief when they go to our rooms. You will think someone is living there. That is what we define as comfortable lifestyle. Someone once told me that what of if he wanted us to leave and he would rent the place. I told him as long as he can afford it. We didn’t start with anybody’s loan or aided by an investor. We started with the things we had and the little lifestyle we could give to people. Sometimes in a whole month or so we don’t have contracts. We depend on retail, and that means making people happy.
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What was your experience working for someone?
When I left youth service, I worked for one man who was into IT training and consulting. I worked for him as a consultant. I refused to be given a designation because I knew I won’t stay long with him. Someone introduced him to me. The man’s company had a problem and he was referred to me. I negotiated my salary, he agreed and paid me for two months. After the second month, the company was still not doing well. I was not happy; he then told me that he was going to close down the company. I told him to give me another two months as the CEO of the company. He looked at me and said that he had paid for the rent of the building and bought the computers, so he had nothing to lose. So he agreed on one condition: “You start paying your salary from the first month,” he told me. I took it up and ran the company for one straight year. And he made good money. Then I resigned. I left because he was using me, making money but reluctant to increase my salary.
Do you regret working for someone?
No. To be sincere, looking back now, I see it as a stepping-stone to where I am now. I needed the knowledge to develop my business. I develop my brand, collateral, material, web page and market it. This knowledge I got then from helping people to develop their products. When people ask how I developed the company, they are always surprised to hear that I handled it myself. Now I have people doing those things for me. I am grateful to God I went through the route. I started this company from zero; so nobody can come in here and tell me something and I would say I don’t know anything about it. I started from being the messenger to the person that pick the calls.
