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Odunlami Adebayo is the founder of Fast Track Delivery Limited, a start-up haulage and logistics business that operates from Lagos to other parts of the country.
Odunlami was inspired by his late mum. He also refused at an early stage of life to leave his future to chance. “I did not want to leave my future to chance, and I have never seen myself as the 8am -5pm guy,” he says.
“I saw a business opportunity in moving goods from one place to another, especially agro products, and I decided to start Fast Track Delivery Limited, a company that focuses on logistics, haulage, courier service, import and export,” the young entrepreneur tells Start-Up Digest.
Having identified an opportunity in the logistics business, he established Fast Track in July 2015. His initial start-up capital was N300,000, an amount he raised through his personal savings and from family and friends.
The geophysics-turned-entrepreneur tells Start-Up-Digest that he spent his initial capital to purchase bicycles he used then for delivery. “I started out with a bicycle in delivering goods initially. After few months, I started investing in couriers and other administrative set-ups,” he discloses.
The young entrepreneur says that the business has grown tremendously since starting owing to the fact that Fast Track Delivery has been able to deliver timeously. The firm now has trucks, which support its logistics services.
“I would say my business has grown tremendously. The business has shown steady and progressive growth, from delivering with bicycles to using couriers,” he further says.
Odunlami has only received support from the Global Student Entrepreneur Award after claiming the 2nd runner up position in 2016.
The business currently has seven employees with three working on full-time basis and four doing part-time.
Responding to questions on major challenges confronting his business, the young entrepreneur says that bad state of roads across the country remains the main issue limiting his business.
He explains that bad road network, coupled with terrible traffic situation, has continued to impact negatively on his business by increasing his delivery time to customers.
“Traffic makes it impossible to meet delivery times. Major roads in Lagos are always congested on a daily basis,” he notes.
The entrepreneur calls on the government at all levels to invest more in road infrastructure, saying that no economy can grow steadily without the needed infrastructure.
He stresses the need to ensure easy movements of people and goods from one point to another.
Similarly, he identifies inadequate seed capital for start-ups as another problem that confronted his business during its early stage.
He notes that the business was able to overcome the challenge by starting with bicycles for delivery before investing in trucks and other courier vans, after sustaining its profit consistently.
“We started very small by using bicycles to make delivery. We started making investments in trucks and vans when we were able to sustain our profit margins over a period of time,” the young entrepreneur says.
On his advice to other entrepreneurs, Odunlami says, “My advice to other entrepreneurs is that you don’t have to be perfect before you know you are doing well. All you need is progress and not perfection. Logistics has its challenges, but also its welcoming returns.”
