What led to the founding of the made-in-Nigeria furniture company, Taeillo, was born out of the frustration of relying on importation from foreign countries.
Jumoke Dada is the founder of Taeillo which started as an e-commerce website just after quitting her interior decorator job with zero capital in 2018.
Not many millennials have the courage to pull this up. Her story has become an inspiring one for many young Africans.
As an award-winning entrepreneur and speaker, Jumoke has built a multi-million-dollar furniture company from scratch sourcing raw materials locally. In her inspiring interviews, we want to share with you responses that may spark that courage in you to not let go of your own entrepreneurial ideas.
On Starting Taeillo E-Commerce and Lifestyle Furniture Brand
“It was more or less like opportunity met preparation because, at that time, many people were at home, and the leading furniture brands were not online to serve them,” Jumoke says.
“Traditional showrooms were locked up too, so that was an opportunity for brands like us to position ourselves and prove that they could buy furniture online without necessarily going into showrooms.”
“We are seeing young people earning good livelihoods, whether due to the tech boom or other growing industries. They have more disposable income than previous generations and they want to spend some money on quality furniture and lifestyle items.”
On How She Landed A Customer On Facebook
“A customer liked it and paid a deposit to have it made. I made 17,000 Nigerian naira profit (US$37), which was used to make the next piece. It grew from there.”
“… we provide customers with aesthetically pleasing furniture pieces at a fraction of the importation price and with a 50% reduction in delivery time to about 4-8 weeks.”
Speaking Of Deliveries And Expansion
“…to order at the moment and our lead times can be up to six weeks, but I want to shorten this. Ideally, if we get the right processes in place, we want to get this down to between seven and 10 days.”
“Sometimes, as a modern business, you must deal with crude suppliers. But recently, we’ve had to change our suppliers to shorten the time we get the materials. Right now, we’re also working around strategic partnerships with third-party logistics companies and might set up a logistics arm to help us improve our deliveries.”
“As we expand to other geographies, we will set up a production facility in that country. Africa is just too fragmented and logistics too tricky to try and ship everything from one central factory,” says Jumoke.
“The goal is to be in all major African cities. Kenya will become the hub for East Africa, Nigeria for West Africa and Côte d’Ivoire for Francophone Africa.”
With its $2.5 million funding raised in 2022 from Nigerian investor Aruwa Capital Management, Taeillo plans to establish in Côte d’Ivoire by the end of 2023.
By Elijah Christopher
