@simplygreenjuices / 08189009009
Healthy options are becoming a necessity and people are making a conscious shift to healthier nutrition. The Simply Green company has taken up the challenge to see that they serve the growing market by Farming, Processing and Packaging fresh produce and juices. Meet Mr. Shola, the man who packed his bag and left Lagos to live in a farm in Oyo state for 4 years
Keys Notes
Can you pleases introduce yourself and tell us about your background –
My name is Shola Ladoja. I am the Founder / CEO Simply Green Limited.
Simply Green is a cold press juice company that also has a vegetable packaging brand. I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York Institute of Technology but after school years, I discovered that my passion was in farming so; I decide to follow my passion – which actually brought me to this Brand.
How did you discover this passion?
Well, I have always known that I was going to be a farmer at some point in life. It got to a certain point in my life when I just needed to get away. So I ran to a farm outside town and spent two weeks there and while there, I just found my passion in it – farming. At some point I left Lagos to a farm in Oyo (2010), where there was no light, no phone service and I spent 4 years there and then I started up Simply Green in 2015.
Tell us about starting days of business and funding?
Well starting up took a lot of sacrifice. Farming is really capital intensive, especially if you are using mechanized equipments and farm machineries
How has the brand evolved over the years?
At a point we were doing green vegetables. For me, I believe vegetable farming is a very good venture. I started with planting and growing things and we started to explore other avenues, at that point, I went to the States for a few months and I worked in a farm so I could gain more knowledge and farming experience. I saw what they were doing and I learnt where and how to add values to our own brand.
What’s your typical workday like?
For a typical farm day, I wake up by 5:30 am and usually I’m at the farm by 6:30 am, we work on the field from that time till 12:00 noon then we go indoors, have lunch and can work in the green house, till say 5:00 pm.
Where do you see your brand in the next 5 – 10 yrs?
I see my brand almost all around West Africa and as the biggest dairy farm in Nigeria.
Can you give us the most challenging experiences you have had?
Everything is a challenge with farming in Nigeria – the lack of adequate infrastructure majorly.
What is the worst entrepreneurial moment you ever had?
Believing in people and being let down – you find out that people you trust and bring into the business with mind that they will see things as you and run with the vision of the brand are just there doing and thinking of their own gain – not there to add values to the business. They all want to make money but hardly adding values.
What would you say are the Importance of failure in Business?
- You definitely learn from your past failures
- Failure teaches you to avoid things that made you fail initially
- When you fail the first time and on coming back into the same business, you actually tend to bounce back stronger.
- Failure taught me that I need to streamline my workforce
- Failing the first time is literally the best way to learn more about the business.
What piece of business advice would you give someone starting up?
- If you are ready to do it, just do it
- Don’t go into it thinking it’s simple
- Don’t go into business simply because you want to make money
- You have to think of sourcing your raw materials from the right source.
Books Recommendation:
Leading – former Manchester United Coach – Alex Ferguson & Michael Moritz
https://issuu.com/latishaakas/docs/r.e.a.d.__book__leading_learning_fr
Key Points
- You should learn from your past failures
- Failure teaches you to avoid things that made you fail initially
- Streamline your workforce and your processes
- If you are ‘ready’ to go into business, just do it
- It is not going to be simple
- Don’t go into business simply because you want to make money
- Understand your supply chain and know your sourcing partners
