Udobizness of The Week - Covered in Cozy

This week, the cozy side of UdobizNG is on display at Covered in Cozy; a clothing venture specializing in comfy sleepwear. The CEO, Ruth Shobande is a resident of Lagos and currently a nursing student at the Lagos State College of Nursing. Ruth told us that she enjoys frequent ward visits and loves meeting new patients but admits that nothing beats a great stroll after a long day at school. Covered in Cozy is all about lounge wear (sleep wear), shorts, pajamas, underwear and anything associated with comfort during sleeping.

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Covered in cozy was born from Ruth’s zeal to start her own business coupled with influence from living in a women’s hostel during school periods. She finally took the plunge in June and her company was born. As a new business, Ruth admits that Covered in Cozy is still facing start-up issues. She informed us about the initial hype which meant that the first set of sales increased exponentially but tapered off at a steady state almost as quickly as it rose. Relatively high delivery costs also discourage people from ordering. To solve these problems, Ruth has become more active on social media and consistently advertises her goods while also tagging influencers to increase post coverage. Smart! She maintains that even though she is not happy with where her business is, she will maintain her hard work and consistency till they pay off. One of Ruth’s immediate aims is to gain the trust of people over time and establish a loyal customer base. She thinks about this daily and her journey towards this goal involves a good amount of customer interaction, which she has grown to love and improve at over time. She also does not like to worry too much about the competition because she believes that as long as she stays on the path of providing good quality products and amazing customer service, success will come despite the actions of her “competitors”. One thing she did stress though, was the fact that school comes first at this point of her life and she will treat this as a side hustle for as long as she is a student. We completely see her point of view here as education is a huge safety net in life.

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We asked Ruth about her opinion regarding ease of business in Nigeria and she had a lot to say. For her, the corrupt policies and lack of amenities and basic security is very disheartening especially considering that these issues do not look like they will be solved anytime soon. She does believe though; that hard work and consistency remain key in battling these issues and building a successful empire. She also believes in making custom business plans and not blindly copying the business strategies of others because there is no guarantee that the success factors will play out the same way twice. You should however, still consider the success/failure of others while making your own plans. Also, pray to GOD for success and indulge in a good amount of self-motivation because the life of an entrepreneur can be demoralizing at times. Ruth also stressed about refusal to sell herself short just to acquire customers. It is ok to have discounts and reductions to attract new customers, but profit is the end goal and there is no compromise on that.

Being the review driven enthusiasts that we are, we asked the question of what she thinks of myudo.biz as well as what advice she could give us. "I like how the customer representative was patient with me and gave me time to think about joining. I wasn’t pressured at all and for that I say thank you." She replied.
Thanks for the compliments, Ruth! We take great customer service very seriously here and would not have it any other way. Thank you for the feedback. You can find Covered in Cozy on UdobizNG at http://www.myudo.biz/coveredincozy. Find more of this business creativity on Instagram: covered_in_cozy or twitter at covered_cozy.