An associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Jennifer Jones birthed Manebody Limited, the parent company of Manebody Cosmetics in 2017. As the brand’s chief executive officer, she is the brain behind most of its creative ideas and is passionate about seeing them come to fruition. Jennifer values the need to change the world, one person, at a time by ensuring that the next person is comfortable; giving back to society; prioritising women’s needs; being honest and respecting everyone’s opinions and views. With her wealth of knowledge from years of experience in skin and hair care, she has produced natural high-performance products that have unmatched benefits and are easy to use. In this interview with The Nigerian Xpress, she discusses starting her business with mere N15, 000, her advocacy on cancer awareness, creating opportunities for industry players and being an exemplary advocate for women.
You left law for entrepreneurship. What informed your decision?
Job satisfaction and fulfilment for me is tied to my ability to actually help the less-privileged but the legal profession didn’t give me this at all. Manufacturing natural cosmetics, on the other hand, gives me the opportunity to literally help people, from increasing their confidence in themselves to empowering them with skills and knowledge and so on.
Tell us about your journey in entrepreneurship, how has it been so far?
I managed to save up a miserly N15, 000 and started selling skincare products for other indigenous brands, adding one brand after another. This was in 2015 and by 2017, I switched to selling imported hair care products, co-owned a hair salon and in 2018, I started manufacturing my own products after some informal and formal training locally and internationally.
You say you manufacture products for other companies and brands. How does the process work?
It works in three ways basically. First, the client company either asks that we create formulae with specific, customised functions, or they provide their formula. Secondly, they can ask us to manufacture and supply to them either in bulk (pails and kegs) or in their retail packaging, which goes on to carry the client’s brand labelling or clients can buy our already existing retail products in bulk and rebrand by using their brand labels and desired packaging.
Funding is a major issue, especially for women-owned businesses. How were you able to fund your business in the beginning?
I funded it with proceeds from the distributorship for the other brands I sold for and proceeds from selling imported hair care products. I also put in all my personal funds and cried afterwards from being very broke but I survived.
It’s no secret that many businesses were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. How are you surviving whilst looking to thrive?
On the contrary, the pandemic was great for us. It was tough at some point but looking back, sustainable locally sourced manufacturing of natural, basic personal care products did well during the pandemic. The part that did well the most was impacting others’ lives through the many skill acquisition schemes we were privileged to be part of, especially teaching how to make cleaning products and variants of sanitisers. It was absolutely amazing to say the least.
The global beauty industry is a multibillion-dollar one, which experts say Nigeria is yet to fully tap into. How can we achieve this?
We can do this by focusing on empowering interested indigenous youths with the skill, knowledge, proper business acumen and the funds to start, run and scale up safe cosmetics manufacturing businesses. Importing is fine but given the constant inflation, hitting our economy, sourcing ingredients, human resources and funds, local production is more sustainable in the long term.
How can we create better opportunities for industry players like you in the global beauty and wellness market?
By creating free, fair and unbiased platforms that will provide us with a wide range of skills, knowledge, technology and machinery to further empower and showcase us to the rest of the world. Also, by making the laws more flexible and giving their enforcers less room for subjective execution of their roles. For instance, exporting is presently more expensive and tedious than importing, which shouldn’t be so.
Being an entrepreneur can be challenging. What are some issues you’ve had to deal with over the years?
Staffing, infrastructure and technology are the major issues now. It’s difficult for me to get very good hands to make an operating system for me that covers every department in my company. I believe in working smart but having 15 different applications/software with 15 different login details for every single staff is very exhausting.
How can we get more women to become successful and rise to the top as you have done? What tips do you have for younger women?
Build and preserve your integrity inside out. From my experience, it’s the only currency that gets you to the top and keeps you there. Regulation is a major problem in this industry, as policies are perceived weak and unenforced.
What can government do to nip quackery in the bud?
The policies are not weak, the enforcers and enforcement is where the problems lie. To nip quackery in the bud, the agencies can have industry experts/good eggs, enlighten, monitor and check others in the business.
Many Nigerians don’t have much trust in locally-sourced and made products. Why is this still an issue?
Too many quacks have become major players and are thriving as a result of the ignorance and gullible nature of the populace. The more informed the populace is, the less quacks we’ll have.
What are the key things you do that women entrepreneurs can emulate in their businesses?
I know that God owns the business and I’m only the manager, so I should be open to be the perfect tool to run it according to His will. I am also team-oriented and focused and this is something that would always take you far.
How do you get inspiration and stay motivated when things aren’t going the way you want?
I remember that I’m doing this for the people that the universe wants to use me to touch/reach out to. That’s my why, reason and purpose.
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I know that God owns the business and I’m only the manager. So, I should be open to be the perfect tool to run it according to His will. I am also team-oriented and focused and this is something that would always take you far.
