Interview with Festus Nwagbo | Co-Founder of Frakem.com

- Can you tell me something about yourself?

My name is Festus Nwagbo. I am the Co-Founder of Frakem.com — Nigeria’s largest online building materials retail store. I have B.Tech from a Federal university in Nigeria. Before and during my studies, I was engaged in the sales and supplies of building materials offline in Nigeria. After founding Frakem in October 2015, I bagged in diploma in plumbing studies and this was necessitated by the company vision of establishing the first ever plumbing academy in Africa. I am a hardworking and discipline person that is keen on changing how things are done and finding better ways of doing things. Hence our decision to create Frakem and we are using the platform to change the way people buy building products.

- What was your career before Frakem was founded?

I have over 6 years experience selling building products offline. Immediately I graduated from University, I worked briefly with Lagos State Government in Nigeria. From there I moved to an Insurance company in Nigeria as well where I worked as Marketing Executive for 4 years, and then switched over to Frakem full time immediately it was successfully founded.

- Can you tell me a little more about Frakem?

Frakem is a two-founders company. The company was borne out of the vision of the founders to innovate how people buy building products. Frakem is changing people’s shopping experience in high end home improvements products by offering an online platform where these products can be sourced, compared and bought online and ordered items delivered to customers doorstep free. Our categories of products includes; sanitary wares, fittings, kitchen accessories, pumps, bathroom accessories, storage tanks and tiles. We also offer free plumbing advisory services to our customers.

What’s your motivation in opening Frakem?

• People waste time, resources and search efforts when shopping for building products in physical stores. This is more difficult for career workers who may not have the time to source for these products due to busy schedule. We saw the pains people pass through and we were motivated to solve this problem. My over 6 years experiences in sales and supplies of these products offline have prepared me for this task. Our motivation was fueled by the fact that there was no niche building materials e-commerce site in Nigeria at the time we started.

Who is/are part of building/founding it?

- I have a founding partner. Together we pulled resources and skills together to start Frakem, and we are both working day and night to drive our company to success.

What was technically the most challenging part of starting this business?

- The execution part of our project management plan especially the development of the platform. We wanted our platform to be exceptionally good and easy to use so we spent close to 10 months working with our developers to come up with the platform. Another challenging part was getting pictures and editing them to be suitable for use on the platform.

How did you get the funding? Is it just from your funds? or you have partners?

- Frakem is 100% self-funded by founders. We have not received any external funding yet.

So far, how was your business doing?

- The business has exceeded our expectation. Frakem has recorded massive growth since inception both in direct product sales and actual website visitors. We have currently achieved 80% of our revenue projection for the year. We have sold over 1000 of our products online and have also sold every category of product on our website just within this short period of operation, this shows strong evidence of market demand. In coming months, we’ll start implementing some of our expansion plans.

Can you tell me a little bit about your products/services?

- We are a product and service based company. Our business is an online store for home improvements and building products. When customers visit our website, www.frakem.com, they explore and select products of their choice, add to cart and then checkout. Select payment options (either pay-on-delivery, bank deposit, or using the payment platform on the site), then the customer receives an e-invoice stating order confirmation and products ordered. We have on our online store different products arranged in categories like bathroom accessories (shower mixer taps, shower rooms and cubicles, bathtubs, washbasin, etc), kitchen accessories (kitchen sinks, sink mixer taps, smoke extractor, etc), Jacuzzi, steam rooms, WC, storage tanks, tiles of both Spanish, Italian and Chinese, etc. Part of the services we offer our customers is free plumbing advice and handling of plumbing/home improvement projects.

What is the biggest project you have right now?

- Our concentration right now is increasing sales and revenue for the business as much as possible. We are currently in discussion with different companies to execute different plumbing projects. The biggest of them is home improvements contract for an oil servicing company in Nigeria. Also, we are still on the planning phase like gathering resources and market data of executing some of our expansion plans.

How do you handle stress like during the times that you need to meet deadlines, some unexpected problems, technical issues etc.

- Concentration! That is the key thing for me. In times like this, what I usually do is to calm my head down and ensure I truly understand the root cause of the problem, either by breaking them down into bits and asking relevant questions or prioritizing so that I can respond to it accordingly. I also try not to make a decision in the heat of the moment. As a company we place so much importance on time and we strive at all times to keep to deadlines and time promised to our customers. So in a time when there are deadlines to meet we assign more resources to that task and work day and night to ensure that we deliver at the specified time. Every task for us is a project, we see every sale as a project (from the point the customer places order online to the point of the delivery). This project-based business process is our philosophy to every sale. My skill as a project management professional (P.M.P.) has been helpful.

What are your plans in the future? Do you have vision to go worldwide?

- If you look at our business, you’ll see we started out as a niche business. This approach has been successful so we will soon initiate the plan to expand into other areas of building materials like roofing sheets, blocks, doors, furniture, etc. We are doing research to go international. We are currently the biggest online building materials retail store in Nigeria and looking at opening up offices in other African countries. All these constitute our medium term plan. Our long term plan is to set up the first ever plumbing academy in Africa and this will not only provide employment but also set us apart as a market leader.

In one word, how would you describe Frakem?

- Frakem.com is a one-stop online shop for home improvements and building products

In one sentence, how would you market Frakem?

- Frakem.com is in business to take away the stress, time, and energy expended in the traditional way of buying home improvements and building products by offering a secured and a more convenient online platform where these products can be sourced, compared and bought from the comfort of your homes or offices and ordered products are delivered to your doorstep.

Do you have any message/quotations to aspiring CEO’s/Founders?

- Know what you want and ensure you understand it very clearly, then go for it. The world of business is tough, it requires patience and constant improvement in what you do, then success must surely come. Keep working and doing the right thing.

Originally published at www.millionrising.com.