Precious Onuoha
Founder Namii
@namii.ng / 08138624974
Did you know that persons with lactose intolerance can actually benefit from Tigernut Milk?
Precious carried out some research on tiger nuts and became obsessed with its health benefits. This became a driving force in starting her business.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your background –
Precious –
My name is Precious. I am a Computer Science graduate. My mother is a caterer and a baker so I have been exposed to this industry from an early age. Although, going into tiger nut business is a different thing altogether; I picked interest in food business from her.
Namii is about a year and two months. I started it in June while I was still doing my 9-5 job. It was quite hectic but I was able to do both until I quit my full time job in August to do this full time.
Starting days for business including funding?
Precious –
It’s been an organic growth for me as I have been able to grow my business without investing too much capital. In the beginning, I’d buy tiger nuts from street vendors but we have improved our sourcing and now buy in bulk.
‘Namii’ was funded by the little savings I made while working. I started by selling to my family members and friends. Right from the beginning, I made sure ‘Namii‘ was well branded so I invested a lot in our packaging and presentation.
Being lactose intolerant, I did some research on tiger nuts and became obsessed with its health benefits. This became a driving force in starting this business.
Various products by Namii
When did your ‘aha’ moment come that you thought ‘I can do this’?
Precious –
Starting up, the truth is that I never thought it was going to be easy. But then, demand became so high that I would stay up till 2:00 am, processing orders and to be up at 7:30am to get ready for work. This happened over a period of time and with such a high and strong demand, I decided it was the right time to quit my job and focus on this. I considered my decision the best option because it’s difficult leaving the business to someone else to manage since it was still at the nursery stage.
Can you describe your typical work day?
Precious –
I take orders and produce every day. We offer same day delivery service on all orders that come in before 9:00 am, and next day delivery on orders after 9:00 am. We also process orders for our clients that buy in bulk; up to 40 bottles at a time.
I am currently working from my home office but we are working on getting a space somewhere else. Presently, we offer about 6 flavors and we make everything fresh. I am managing 2 employees and will be hiring more once we get a space.
How has your business evolved over the years?
Precious –
My brand has evolved in many great ways. We are getting more engagement and opportunities to inform clients with the benefits of our products which was not so when we started. We really started small and took time to study the market before we started pushing more. We have introduced some other products to our line up like cookies, shea butter and nuts.
Nuts by Namii
Where do you see the brand in 5 yrs- 10 yrs?
Precious –
Hmm! In the next couple of years, Namii would become a household name – just the way people talk about Indomie, Milo and other popular brands. I will have more distribution chain and production factory.
Can you give us the most challenging experiences you have had?
Precious –
Logistics! We are currently brainstorming on how to manage it and serve customers better. There have been cases where the delivery bike had accident and the whole product got damaged. In some cases, you have the milk get bad before it gets to the customer. We’ve had to learn from our mistakes, try to correct them and make sure there isn’t a repeat.
What is the worst entrepreneurial moment you have had?
Precious –
We had this production for a fare the next day, and we made 80 bottles of drinks. Due to power outage, we switched to the generator which apparently didn’t freeze the product and so we lost all the drinks. That led to us scrabbling to reproduce for the fare.
How do you treat recipes and intellectual properties?
Precious –
For now, I keep the entire recipe to myself. However, the goal eventually will be to delegate and assign this responsibility to a staff.
What advice will you give someone starting up?
Precious –
My advice is simple; follow your dreams, keep being passionate about what you do and don’t let anyone discourage you
Books and Resource recommendation:
Precious –
I read a lot of articles on entrepreneurship on the internet.
Key points
- We’ve had to learn from our mistakes, try to correct them and make sure there isn’t a repeat
- Follow your dreams, keep being passionate about what you do and don’t let anyone discourage you
- Tigernut Milk can be consumed by persons with lactose intolerance.
