How I Started It: Tomisin of Shayo Bar
You’ve heard us say this before, but we love events at tix. And more than just event organizers and their guests, we are also interested in the team of vendors who work behind the scene to make every event a success. This is why we have decided to start a new blog series called How I Started It.
Just like our Creator Spotlight series, in these interviews, we’ll be speaking with event entrepreneurs as they share stories of how they started their business, lessons learnt and plans for the future.
Our first guest is Tominsin who started her cocktail company, Shayo Bar with only N150,000.
T: Why did you decide to start a cocktail company?
SB: I’ve always had a passion for mixing drinks. I just liked to mix drinks. In 2018 during my service year, I interned with a mixologist and my mind was blown. I began to understand the art of mixing drinks and just getting more knowledge about cocktails in general. And then I thought to myself, ‘why not commercialise this?’. That aside, my main inspiration for starting the business was happiness. I liked that I could give someone my cocktail and watch their mood go from 0-100. That made me feel very good, made me feel like I was doing something right.
T: How did you get the internship?
SB: I was very lucky to have interned at the time I did. I knew I wanted to learn how to make cocktails professionally, but I didn’t have money to take classes as I had just gotten out of NYSC camp. On hannytalker’s Twitter timeline, I saw that a mixologist — Chinyem of BV Elixirs, was hiring, and I decided to apply. I got the job the next day. All I know about cocktails right now, I learnt from her.
T: How much did you invest in the business?
SB: About N150,000. You see, cocktail equipment is very pricey — from shakers, muddlers, jiggers. You can go shopping for cocktail equipment with a million naira and still not get everything you want. But with N150,000, I was able to get the essential tools I needed to start with.
T: Seeing how much the business has grown, I’d say it was a worthy investment. Do you prefer serving at parties or delivering to customers?
SB: Omo. (laughs). Let me not lie, I prefer serving at parties.
T: Why?
SB: For two reasons. At parties, I get to experience the fun, meet people and receive instant feedback and reviews. I get to know what they think about my cocktail. Another reason why I don’t like deliveries is because of logistics and dispatch riders. I’m sorry, but I have to drag them. Dispatch riders mishandle the drinks. The first day I started deliveries at Shayo Bar, two orders got messed up because the dispatch rider placed another item on the cocktail pouches. The pouches tore and the drinks spilt, and guess what? He gave the customer the torn pouches and spilt drinks like that.
T: * stares in disbelief *
SB: It was very discouraging because as a vendor, you wake up in the morning to prepare the drinks and pack them -and you know how cocktails are; they have to be consumed within a short period. So when I hand them over to be delivered, and the rider first takes it to his village (laughter) before making the delivery, the cocktail is not fresh anymore, and it tastes off. So now you’re getting bad reviews. But at parties, I serve clients fresh cocktails, and they can give instant feedback and tell me what they like and what they don’t like.
T: I totally get your point. Speaking of clients, what had been your best experience so far?
SB: I’ve had many favourable client experiences, but I’m going to highlight one in particular. The client’s name is Dampop. I launched Shayo Bar on the 14th of March, and she reached out to me on the 15th of March for her wedding on the 19th of March. At that point, even though I knew that I had launched and was advertising the business, I still had a bit of self-doubt because I had no event experience. She paid for the service and told me, ‘I trust you to give me the best, don’t disappoint me.’ I did not sleep the night before the wedding. I was so nervous. But I still went ahead with it. That was Shayo Bar’s first event, and it was a huge success. That experience gave me a lot of confidence. We were contracted for another wedding shortly after that. Dampop trusted me to provide her with the best without any event experience or client reviews. She gave me a chance and even recommended me to other people.
T: Aww, this is so amazing. What has been your biggest challenge since starting Shayo Bar?
SB: The first is dispatch riders. They are one of my biggest challenges. They ruin a lot of orders for me. The second is the inflation in the prices of cocktail ingredients. The cost of the items used in making cocktails keeps going up. One can buy a bottle of vodka for N2000 today, and in a week, it becomes N2500, N2800. These tiny increments affect your profit margin as a vendor. It can be frustrating because when you consider increasing the product’s prices, you also have to think about losing customers. It’ll hurt me to increase the cost of my drinks, but that may be what I’ll eventually have to do.
T: I understand. Pele.
SB: Thank you.
T: What is your best selling cocktail?
SB: My best selling cocktail is not even a cocktail. My best selling product is Zobo. We’ve sold over 1000 bottles of Zobo so far. I may even be underestimating the number. Our biggest customers are companies who order in bulk.
T: What is your personal favourite?
SB: Margaritas. They’re my favourite cocktail to make, drink or recommend to someone. I love them so much. I like the sweet and sour taste and the fact that the garnishes are not restricted to one thing. You can create different flavours of margaritas — Zobo, orange etc. I also love the margarita glass. It’s big, and you have to lift it with your whole hand. I feel powerful when holding a glass of margarita like I can take over the world.
T: I feel you. Are you open to taking interns at the moment?
SB: I’ll consider it in the future, but for now, I still have a long way to go and more to learn. I still want to take mixology classes. When I feel confident enough, I’m very open to teaching people and taking interns.
T: Can you share some of your plans for the future?
SB: I want to do more than just cocktails. I want to explore my other interest in healthy meals like parfaits, smoothies, salads etc. I haven’t started yet because I don’t want to create something in which I would not be consistent. For Shayo Bar, I want the business to be the top of mind when people think of cocktails or mobile bars in Nigeria. I also want people to be able to afford our drinks. I grew up in an average family, and I would sometimes look at nice things and wish I could afford them, so I want a situation where people who cannot, for example, go into restaurants or bars to buy cocktails to be able to do so at an affordable rate and at the same quality, thanks to Shayo Bar.
T: What are your favourite events to serve at?
SB: Weddings.
T: Thank you so much for speaking with me, Tomi. I cannot wait to see Shayo Bar’s growth over the next couple of years.
