Saudat O. Salami is the founder/CEO of www. easyshopeasycook.com, a foremost multi-platform fresh grocery delivery company in Nigeria that uses technology to provide domestic support services to working professionals.
Her platform partners with various corporations with large workforce that understand their role in helping employees achieve work/ life balance using a combination of support services which fit into HR policies. This helps to enhance productivity, reduce staff turnover especially the women workforce, improve efficiency and very importantly creates a conducive and inclusive workplace.
She is an African Women Entrepreneurship Corporative Alumna, United States IVLP Alumna, Vital Voices Grow Fellow, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women scholarship recipient; Alumna of CEM (Certificate for Entrepreneurial Management) program at EDC an arm of Pan-african University, Lagos and an Alumna of Fate FoundationAspiring Entrepreneurs Program.
She is an Associate Member of WIMBIZ (Women in Management, Business and Public Service), WEConnect international, Nigerian Association Of Small And Medium Enterprises, Institute of Logistics Management of Nigeria and volunteer to various charity organisations.
In the beginning
Growing up was difficult for me, I remember being a moody child and my friends used to think I was a snob not knowing that I did not really know how to mix and keep friends. I did not have any plan for my life, no one told me I had to have one, so I was opened to anything till my early twenties.
I was then introduced to books, Islamic religious books, motivational books, leadership books, Christian religious books and autobiographies by my early mentors. I have read the English Quran cover to cover countless times and the understanding of God’s words and promises allowed me a certain peace and assurance I didn’t get from anywhere.
It took a while to get it but eventually I gained an awareness that changed how I saw myself and my purpose as a woman with big dreams and goals for a more fulfilled and deliberate life.
When and why did you decide to go into your line of business?
The idea came about in 2001 during a conversation with a close friend of mine, Tomi Pearce the founder of Aweni Organics, about challenges women face in balancing work and home life. We listed some of the domestic chores that career women do and looked at ways we could create businesses around those chores for the women so that they can focus on their career without hindrances like the men have done successfully over time.
I have a tech background and was working as a website developer and software application trainer at the time; I realized I could build a website to help career woman shop for fresh groceries and this will solve some of their work-life challenges.
From 2001 to 2005, I ran a pilot of the business part time, running feasibility studies about its viability and also learning more about the problem the business was to solve, the target customer, the industry and so on. I also joined the Success Digest club of Dr. Sunny ObazuOjeagbase, which prepared me for the challenges of running a business in Nigeria. In 2005, when I had proof of concept, I resigned from my job and started the business at home full time.
Starting off
As a pioneer in this business and sector, starting was very difficult. My website was live but internet connection was slow and wasn’t readily available to everyone. There was no trust for a remote person to buy groceries for you and deliver to your home.
Even though women desperately wanted to outsource their shopping for convenience and time savings, the culture stigma was very high. Outsourcing such chores publicly was frowned- upon as they were termed lazy and inadequate by other women and men.
People felt using a support service like Easyshop Easycook meant the women valued their work more than their home which was not the case here but that was the narrative in the media and social space and this made customer acquisition very difficult.
In order to get customers, I had to do it the traditional way, go door to door from companies to homes. My sister is an old girl of Queens College, Lagos, she gave me a good number of her friends working in Lagos and because of the relationship, they trusted me and soon referred friends and family.
There were no organised online community to reach customers at the time like we have today. It became easier when I joined Wimbiz and was introduced to early founders and members particularly Osayi Alile, Bola Adesola, Yewande Zacchaeus, Nimi Akinkugbe and Ini Abimbola. WIMBIZ is an association of career women and business owners and these are my main demographic.
They believed in me and helped spread the service faster amongst their friends, family and businesses. They also demanded a lot of professionalism from the business and this helped us to standardize early and grow sustainably.
What differentiates us from others is our driving force, our clear understanding of the problem we are solving, who are target customers are and the added value we bring to our customers. Another thing I did was get mentors early who later became shareholders and directors of Easyshop Easycook.
They did not understand the e-commerce space at the time but they understood how to run a business successfully, their guidance, support and patience, a lot of patience helped us stay the course.
In comparison with when you started, where would you say your business is at today?
This is a sector where most players die or pivot before they are 3 years old. I believe we are still a work in progress but we are making good progress. The online grocery delivery sector in Nigeria requires a lot of infrastructure and culture change in other to be profitable for all players.
Our survival is partly linked to the value chains of the agric sector and our problems are far greater than building fancy websites, mobile apps or payment gateways. Other developed countries we copy do not have the challenges we have here.
Our realities are not theirs and if we run our businesses the way they do theirs we will have serious problems which is what has been happening to the sector for years. For me, collaboration is where we should be looking at in this sector instead of competition.
We need to come together to define the problems and work with other stakeholders to put in needed infrastructure for all our benefit.
Latest initiative you are championing for women
We started a women empowerment initiative to train 50 women every quarter, starting from this August on how to start and run successful personal home shopping businesses.
Women make enormous contributions to economies by doing unpaid care work at home, setting up informal small businesses mostly food related and helping out on farms.
This initiative helps to formalize the home business through entrepreneurial trainings that will be used to scale-up and build bigger businesses. Nigeria has the highest number of female entrepreneurs in the world but what is the size of our business compared to other parts of the world? It is very small because we are not empowered to scale-up.
Our program will give the women access to start-up loans, linkages to farmers cooperatives, FMCGS, business tools and one year mentorship with me. I will be sharing my knowledge and experience with the women so that we can come together to build an ecosystem that will grow to change the online food sector.
This is also a woman supporting woman initiative. The women we will be training will be building businesses that will serve as support services for career women. Women make over 70% of domestic decisions and when we encourage a woman to pursue a career and leave the home, combining these roles becomes a huge burden.
We have to understand that without a support service, a gap will be left at home and many women tend to pull out of their jobs or avoid promotion opportunity especially when they become mothers or get married.
We are empowering women to empower women. It is huge for us as this is the mindset that kept us in business for this long. Understanding our role in the grand scheme of things, the problem we are here to solve and the impact our work is having in the society.
Advice to young entrepreneurs
Consistency and patience makes a lot of difference in all you do to grow your business. Collaboration will take you very far and you must be willing to learn from others. Awards might be a form of validation but trust me, you don’t need them to succeed. Validate yourself and get on with your work, your success will validate you in time.
Final words
Women must stop telling themselves that they are lazy or inadequate for requiring help whether at home or in the office. If we want to move up the pyramid of life and occupy top positions, we have to learn to change the words we use on ourselves and this will in turn empower us to change our mind-set. Delegation is part of leadership; we must get used to it and do not feel bad about doing it.
