UdobizNess of the Week - Urch Foods NG

This week, we get to explore the culinary side of myudo.biz with Urch Foods NG, owned by Ekwuemeh Blessing Uchenna.

Blessing describes herself as a Nigerian born and bred business-oriented lady. She also mentioned that aside from dabbling in business, she loves travelling, cooking and adventuring. She is currently a student of the University of Calabar, Calabar. I looked into what her company Urch Foods is about. In short, Urch Foods Ng is a food brand that focuses on indigenous food. Their other services include cooking and food delivery on pre-order. One interesting detail pointed out to me by Blessing was that her products are inspired by but not limited to the people of Nsukka (A region in Enugu state, Nigeria). They have varieties of products including Okpa (Bambara nut) flour, packaged Egedemgbu (a special variety of beans), Achicha, Cassava (akpu) flour and Beans flour. Urch foods Ng was officially launched in August 2019.

Blessing is a person who is really optimistic and positive about the state of her business. From her point of view, Urch Foods has been doing great so far especially considering the fact that it is still an infant brand. She is really pleased with the business progress so far and hopes to keep soaring higher. Her end goal is to see the business grow into a multi-million naira venture in a few years. All seems well now but she did mention some struggles during initial start-up. For one thing, she faced financial challenges, most of which she got bailed out from by close friends. She also mentioned the huge challenge of being a student and an entrepreneur at the same time. On one side, Blessing must think about making grades and on the other side (usually at the same time), she has to think about business improvements. She admits that this challenge takes a lot of mental and physical perseverance to deal with, but she does her utmost best to find balance. Being a full-time student also leads to this her main source of income. She doesn't mind juggling these two aspects of her life though; as academics secure her future and the cooking aspect of her business gladdens her as cooking is one of her hobbies.

Client interaction is taken extremely seriously at Urch Foods. No matter how disrespectful a client might be; respect is the required response. Blessing believes this is a huge key to building relationships and gaining long term clients.

Competition seemed like a passionate topic when it came to Urch Foods. Because of the passion involved, paraphrasing Blessings feelings on competition did no real justice. In her own words, "No business thrives perfectly in monopoly. Competition can be a factor to push you to greatness. Without competition, reluctance might set in as a result of over confidence. But when there's competition, you can't help but push towards making your product outstanding to win the heart of the buyers. So yeah, I think competition is necessary and the only way to handle it is to keep improving on your products, thereby giving the buyers a thousand and one reasons why they should always go for your products even if it is slightly more expensive than other products of its specie. I simply let quality do the talking." Fair to say that she is ready!

Blessing believes Nigeria is a good place for business. According to her, the very large population of hard-working youth within Nigeria ensures that labour is never a scarce commodity. She also highlighted that Nigeria also has a lot of industrial and commercial cities like Lagos, Aba and Onitsha. She does acknowledge that the experience is not pleasant for all and her advice to struggling business owners is to never give up. She believes that even though money is the end-goal, you need to put your passion and interests into consideration. Management and growth of an entity becomes less of an effort if you have adequate passion for said entity or at least for aspects of it. She added that the satisfaction that comes with pursuing your passion most likely has a psychological effect that would provide a constant boost. Her advice comes down to these words; always consider your passion and don't always go for the trend. Think of something unique to do, think of an invention, think of a new product to introduce to the market.

Product Display

At Urch Foods, maintaining a good relationship between employer and employees is also key for growth. Asides from financial benefits, Blessing ensures that she communicates frequently with her employees and gets their opinions on important subjects to make them feel comfortable and stay relevant. She also encourages them and rewards them for jobs well done with kind words.

Being a woman in a (and I dare say it) sexist community, Blessing admits having faced a couple of challenges because of her gender, and not just that; because of her age as well. She mentioned how a potential investor once told her to graduate with good grades and get married. According to him, that should be the priority of every woman as opposed to venturing into the world of business. She said this made her angry but also motivated her to keep pushing harder to prove to the bitter sexists of our generation that there's more to a woman's life that just getting married and bearing kids. We admire this. Sexism is disgusting. Good to see your positive attitude despite these challenges. She went on to give some advice for women in business. She started by mentioning that one of the major challenges women encounter in business apart from gender based stereotype is the creation of a psychological weakness by seeing themselves as weaker vessels. She believes women need to constantly remind themselves that that they are strong and the barrier or limitations are only be psychological. Sometimes as humans, our greatest fears only exist in our heads, and are just mirages. It takes self determination to break that barrier and stand up against your fears.

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 must say this is a great platform and I am glad to be part of it. For now, I can't think of any improvement suggestions but subsequently if I come up with any, I won't hesitate to contact UdobizNg. ".
Thanks for the kind words, Blessing! We'll keep trying to spread awareness of our free platform and could definitely use your help in getting that out there too.

You can find Urch Foods NG on UdobizNG at http://www.myudo.biz/urchfoodsng. Find more of this business creativity on Instagram: urchfoodsng or twitter at urchfoods.