In 2016, Sunday Stephen Eze quit his pharmaceutical job to start a furniture business. His company, Pasich Furniture, designs, produces and installs furniture for clients across the country.
Sunday was inspired to establish his business owing to his love for drawings and creativity as well as his desire to be an entrepreneur.
“I was inspired by my urge for creativity and the mere fact that I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur, designing and creating things that will be used for interior furnishing,” he says.
To further broaden his designs and creativity skills, Sunday took up a job in a furniture business.
The pharmacist-turned-entrepreneur started his business small from his personal savings, which he used on registration and purchase of basic carpentry tools.
He notes that through the profit he got from his first contract, he was able to purchase more carpentry tools for the business.
“As shocking as it may sound, our initial start-up capital was basically the money used in registering the company back then and buying some carpentry tools,” Sunday says.
“After the first job we did, the profit made was used to buy the first set of hand-held tools for carpentry and from there came other equipment and tools. Our modus operandi till date is to make money and plough it right back into business,” he explains.
The young entrepreneur says the business has grown tremendously since starting, as its client base keeps expanding. “The business has grown tremendously. We have worked in over 18 states in Nigeria and our client base keeps expending.”
Currently, Pasich Furniture has 19 permanent employees and 10 contract staff members. “We have 19 permanent staff and about10 contract staff. The contract staff members are mostly made up of carpenters who help us to carry out installation of already produced furniture in situations when we have clashing deliveries to make,” the young entrepreneur says.
He tells Start-Up Digest that he sources the majority of his raw materials overseas.
Sunday says that Pasich Furniture plans to expand the size of the furniture factory by almost five times its current size before the end of 2019.
Also, the company plans to open a showroom in Abuja and subsequently other cities in Nigeria and Africa at large.
“Presently our factory is a 400 square metre size. We have plans to move into a 1,900 square meter size-factory sometime next year. Next year, as we move into a bigger factory, we plan to open up our first showroom in the city of Abuja. From there we can gradually open other branches across Nigeria and later Africa,” he says.
Sunday states that poor power supply has remained the major challenge facing his business and has continued to increase his cost of production.
Similarly, he identifies lack of employees’ dedication to job as another problem facing his business, while he adds that this has led to continuous engagement and disengagement of staff.
He calls on the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for indigenous businesses to thrive and grow the economy of the country. He also pleads with authorities to remove the stringent requirements to accessing government finances, especially for start-ups.
“The Bank of Industry (BOI) will ask you to get a reference from your village chief and a guarantor that is a director in a government ministry and other near-impossible things,” he says.
He says the Nigerian furniture industry has the potential to be a foreign exchange earner for the country if the government can provide the right environment for the industry to grow.
When asked what he would tell his younger self, Sunday says, “I will tell my younger self not to ever give up, to be always positive, hardworking and to prove anyone wrong when they say you cannot achieve this or that.”
Josephine Okojie
