The crew of Nigeria Business Review came in contact with the Igwe twins on the 2nd of October, 2014 at the main auditorium of University of Lagos during a business seminar. They were invited to share how they rose from grass to grace. Their story is really motivating. If the Igwe brothers could succeed in entrepreneurship against all odds, nobody has any reason to fail.

It’s amazing to discover two individuals, though in their twenties, already making meaningful impact through their foray into entrepreneurship. As a matter of fact they were nominees of the last future awards in Nigeria. Future Awards is a fast-rising platform that gives recognition to outstanding youths in all area of endeavour.

The young lads are Tobias Igwe and Titus Igwe popularly referred to as the Igwe Twins. The Igwe brothers, together, run the affairs at Speed Meals, a fast-rising mobile food business, in Apapa, Lagos. Their services include; cakes, small chops, cooked food delivery and catering services. Today, they have had the opportunity of providing services to high net worth individuals in Nigeria. Amazingly, the two young CEOs were able to make a turnover of two million naira within the first year they opened shop. The business was officially registered in June 2010.

Brief Background of Igwe Twins
The passion for anything culinary came natural to the Igwe twins who said they came from an average family where cooking was done mainly by the boys. Growing up for Tobias and Titus was really a tough one, especially at the demise of their father. This tragic event occurred while they were both undergraduate students of the University of Lagos. With younger siblings to cater for, bills and school fees to pay; it was pretty rough and tough.

They both tried their hands on quite a few petty businesses like phone call centre, business centre and what have you. But none did survive for too long due to one reason or the other. One of them had to stop school while the other continued. They also found themselves at one occasion working as office assistants just to make a living. It was during this tough time that they struck gold.

How the Business Idea was birthed
Idea is said to rule the world. One good idea that meets a demand in the market is sufficient to change one’s fortune. The idea to turn the art of cake making to business came about in 2008. Back then, one of the twins had the privilege of meeting one-on-one with a young cake expert who opened their eyes to the business side of cake. The two brothers were fascinated about the creativity and how it can pull in cash for them. And without wasting time, they learnt the skill and the rest as they say, is history.

The Igwe twins said they discovered that Lagos is a very busy city especially with the huge traffic. Many people complain of being busy at work to the extent that they don’t have time to eat. More so, they found themselves residing in an area densely populated by businesses. Based on these facts, the twins decided to come up with a food concept that delivers food to offices.
One way to derive maximum pleasure from a business is to build it around one’s personality trait. The Igwe twins explained that they enjoyed being on the go. They detest just sitting down doing the same thing repeatedly but prefer to explore. So, when they had to make a decision about the kind of business they would do, they both agreed it would be a mobile one.

How They Honed Their Skills
Talent they say is not enough. Perhaps, this was the driving force that propelled the young entrepreneurs to further hone their skills. Titus said: “Tobias and I did not rely on just our raw culinary skills, we were smart enough to learn the art of cake making and other culinary dishes from the best hands here in Lagos. We also enrolled in the Fate Foundation School to learn more about what entrepreneurship is all about. Here, we learnt about business plan, management, record-keeping and so on. All these further gave us exposure and has impacted greatly in the way we run Speed Meals Mobile Food Business today” he enthused.

The Business Model
Successful businesses are known to run on models. Model simply means pattern, system or the approach which you want to operate or drive your business. The Igwe Twins decided to raise the bar by expanding from doing just cakes to making real meals. Now, there are various ways of positioning the one’s business depending on the type of client or market you want to attract. For the Igwe twins, they resolved that rather than have a full fledge restaurant, they would focus on busy executives, who as a result of the nature of their jobs would prefer a food vendor who delivers to their offices. Today, Speed Meals run a mobile food delivery business model which entails preparing real meals for corporate clients.

How they got their Start up capital
Capital is one hurdle that has stalled the dream of many youths who want to go into business today. For the twins, they were able to adopt the strategy of giving out free samples of their cakes to several potential clients to taste. After which the two became expectant that they would land a deal. And not too long afterwards a cake deal worth about N90,000 came from one of those who tasted their free samples. This was enough to jump-start their business. With that, they were able to purchase a few of their equipment.

How they attracted their clients
The survival of any business is the ability to pull-in clients to buy from you. When the twins started the business with cakes, they knew they could not afford the cost of advertising and so they came up with a strategy. The church was their first contact. They knew that kids would always be attracted to cakes. So, the twins would make very good cakes, take it to church and share it with kids. This was done freely for a while. And the children would announce it to their parents that they were given cakes by the twins. This was one strategy that began to announce the arrival of the twin cooks to the public. The twins also adopted another strategy which was to visit churches within their neighborhood that had marriage course classes for intending couples. They would seek the consent of the official in-charge and offer free cakes to the class. These two major strategies brought in jobs for them as well as referrals even till date.

How they branded their business
Branding is about creating an identity in the market place. It is bringing to bear the unique value your business has to the market place such that every of your target market identifies you with it. Without it, there’s every possibility that you may not last for long amidst fierce competition.
For Tobias and Titus, they were quick to embrace the importance of branding. No wonder they went the extra-mile to engage the services of a brand agency to help come up with their brand profile. “We are gradually positioning our business as a global brand.” Titus explained. Speed Meals, pioneered by the twins have been able to position itself as a brand that provides quality, quick and professional mobile food service.

How they keep their customers
Your customers are your greatest asset. According to the Igwe twins, attracting customers can really be challenging but more challenging is even retaining them. “But overtime, we’ve been able to crack the code. One of the ways to keep your customers is to make them your friend. People like to keep tab of their friends. So, we make a conscious effort to call our customers and find out about their well-being. We have records of their special days like birthdays, wedding anniversaries and other occasions as the case may be and we call them to congratulate them on such occasions.”

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