"Scaling a business is like a marriage or a relationship. You have got to put in the right strategies, collaboration, commitment, determination and resilience for it to keep growing."
On this episode, I scheduled a conversation with Emmanuel Jonathan, the founder of Goldberries D' Grills, one Nigerian whose passion for influencing the entrepreneurial space supersedes his challenges. Amazingly, he is keen on offering entrepreneurs worldwide hindsight of his career by sharing his experience.
We discussed his journey as a founder, the Goldberriers D' Grills experience and especially the factors that hinder businesses from scaling. He shared his personal experience as the founder of Goldberries D' Grills, the business he started in 2019, which is no longer active.
About Goldberries D's Grills
Goldberries D' Grills strategically started to bring uniqueness into the food sector, a uniqueness that would allow people access to tasty food quickly without spending much. Emmanuel and his team wanted people to enjoy the affordability that comes with so much value. Located in Lagos, a city where many people groan and complain about how they spend so much to get access to quality food, most especially those working or residing in the city's metropolis.
The Startup's Target:
Focused on grilled foods, the startup sought to help Lagosians satiate their hunger while beating the famous busy traffic in Lagos, Nigeria, by using digital platforms like Whatsapp Messenger, where users could make orders swiftly. Goldberriers D' Grills was ultimately focused on becoming a major player in the fast food industry. However, the journey for Goldberries D' Grills was a sour rather than a tasty one.
Challenges from Goldberries D' Grills startup journey
Team members:
According to Jonathan, one of the challenges that led to the failure of his businesses was getting the right people to build the right team to work with. For Jonathan, it was difficult scaling his business, working with individuals who lacked passion and were not ready to 'put in' the work.
He said, "Even with money, if you don't have great minds (team) who are willing to learn, listen to each other and understand each other's strength and weakness as well try to work on each other's ideology or contribution to make the business grow you would fail and won't scale".
Resources:
According to Jonathan, the idea of resources when building a successful business continues beyond funds, as resources could also mean tools, relationships, and partnerships with other sectors, and then funding, which is always the bedrock of quick expansion and scaling.
Marketing:
Following his experience, Jonathan realised that a business that doesn't show up every day in the faces of people both online and offline is bound to be unscaled, and not all marketing strategy fits every business.
Recommendations:
'you need the right partner or co-founder as well a team who understands the core ethics of building a business'.
For Jonathan, the hack to this challenge is building a team with understanding and synergy at its core. No team member should consider themselves self-sufficient, as everyone's opinion or input is important and needed.
Secondly, regarding resources, Jonathan believes it is one of the bedrock for a successful startup, and there are several ways to seek funding. According to him, some startups bootstrap their business while others seek external funds. Whichever one you choose, the most essential thing is plunging back the money (revenues) into the business.
'Marketing is meant to yield results and not a channel to spend money'- Emmanuel Jonathan.
Finally, on marketing, for Jonathan, the solution would be to conduct an intense evaluation before initiating your marketing plans.
Unscaled is our latest web series focused on the stories of unsuccessful unique startups and analysing several factors that caused these startups to fail. Join the waitlist for our newsletter.
