By Ebele Orakpo
Mrs Delphine Onyinye Anusiem is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of React International Assure Limited, a Lagos-based outfit that is into general contracting, catering services and interior decoration. In this chat with Vanguard in Lagos recently, Mrs Anusiem, a 2005 graduate of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the Lagos State University,  talks about her business, how it all began, the challenges of doing business in Nigeria. Excerpts

On completing her diploma in Public Administration at the Lagos State University in 2000/2001, Mrs Delphine Onyinye Anusiem later went on to obtain a Bsc. in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the same university. Upon graduation, she went to Kaduna for her compulsory one year service to fatherland at the National Panasonic.

After the youth service, she got into the business of interior decoration and general contracting through the birth of React International Assure Limited.

On how it all started, Mrs. Anusiem said: “During my school days, I used to sell things in school. I have never had any dull moment. I think I took that from my mother who is my role model. She is a businesswoman, so hardworking that she single-handedly built a hotel in Owerri in her heydays,” she said.

According to her, she raised the initial capital from the money she saved from the businesses she did while in school.

“I raised the initial capital from the money I saved from the businesses I did while in school. Back then, whenever I was given my pocket money, I would use part of it to buy clothes, shoes, jewellery and all that and then sell to my fellow students so I was able to raise some money and my mother also helped me with some money. So I started my business with about N450,000.

I continued selling the things I was selling before i.e. shoes, clothes, jewellery etc. Then I had an aunt who was travelling to Italy to buy things and once she comes back, I would go and deposit some money with her, pick up some stuff to sell. I used to go to places like bonded terminals to sell. That was how it all started,” she said.

Being energetic and hardworking, Mrs Anusiem felt there was need to diversify and so from selling clothes, shoes and jewellery, she went for training to learn how to do interior decoration and catering.

“Although my mother is a caterer too and I learnt some skills from her, I still had to go for training to learn more so as to enhance my skills,” she noted.

Although she has six people in her employ, Mrs Anusiem noted that dearth of skilled manpower is one of the challenges faced by the business. Others are economic downturn, disappointment by staff and poor power supply.

“Some of the challenges I encounter in the interior decoration arm of the business include the fact that sometimes, the staff might disappoint you by failing to show up on time and so you have to go out and hire people and pay extra to have them come and help you out. For the fact that you have taken it upon yourself or you have collected some money for a particular job, you have to really work on that. So, that is one of the challenges.

Electricity sometimes is an issue in this business but we also have some manual equipment that we can make do with when there is no electricity supply. So it is not really as challenging as in other jobs that really need electricity.

“In the area of contracts, throughout last year, I registered with the Department of Petroleum Resources of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. It was really tough and the challenges were many because as a woman, you encounter a lot of challenges when you go to places like that; you see a whole lot of things, but by the special grace of God, Iwill overcome.

The challenges are just for a while. Throughout last year, I could not get any job but I am believing God that this year will be different.”

Not one to give up easily, she said: “I will push on until I get something from there.

It is always better to go to bigger firms and oil companies for contracts because that is when you actually get what you want.”

Mrs. Anusiem is also into outdoor  and door-to-door catering. “People will always call up and say they want a pot of soup or pot of stew and all that, and then we cook and take to them and they pay. For instance, a pot of soup could go for N15,000 although I had a challenge sometime ago.

People were saying there was no money, the economy was bad so at a time I had to reduce the cost of a pot of soup to N10,000 – N12,000 depending on what and what the client wants in the soup. Sometimes the economy can be so hard on us that we have to come down to a certain amount of money for a pot of stew,” she said.

Continuing, she noted: “Manpower is also another challenge because people sometimes walk away because the catering job is a very hectic one so sometimes you might see your workers and sometimes, you don’t see them as they will simply not show up.

But I take it upon myself because I have passion for all of that and I am not always afraid of work as God has given me the strength and stamina to do all of those so I am not one that is afraid of doing any work at any time. Even if it is 12 midnight you call me up to cook, I can always do it because I am passionate about it.”

Mrs Anusiem who is always looking for ways to expand, said she recently got into the spa products business. “Recently, I discovered that I am passionate about spa products like body massage, body exfoliating scrub, polishing and all of that so I decided to go into that line of business also. I am believing God that pretty soon, I will be able to raise the funds to do the business.”