Finding Harmony in Three Roles, meet Olufunmbi of Threefold Agro Consult

Jul 03, 2023

Olufunmbi Aigbekaen’s personal development journey started in 2012 as a 300-level university student. In 2015, she launched her sole proprietorship business, now known as Threefold Agro Consult, dealing in the processing of food products such as catfish, panla, locust beans, garri, etc. The business serves customers in the UK, Germany, England, South Africa, and at least 15 states in Nigeria. In this second edition of The BAKE According to Olufunmbi Aigbekaen, we learn from her personal development journey, a harmony of three roles, and big-picture wisdom.

Personal Development Journey and Starting a Business

2012. That’s when I started being intentional about my identity—who I was and what I really wanted to do with my life—after I’d gone through a lot of teenage exuberance. I started being intentional about my life and about myself. I was already at 300-level in the university, and I knew right from there that I didn’t want to work for someone because I cherish family a lot. I’m a family person, and I knew that I needed time for my family. I knew also that I didn’t want a job that’d take my time off from the family. So, I decided I was going to go into business. And I can say my personal development journey has influenced the starting and building of Threefold Agro Consult.

Motivation and thriving for business excellence as a reflection of faith

The business I run is my calling. It’s not something I just thought I would be able to do. I recently started to see it as a calling, a ministry. Well, I’m a Christian. So, when there are downtimes and challenges, I turn to God for my motivation and the fact that I didn’t start here. I started small, and we’re where we are today by the grace of God. I have faced a lot of them. So, if we’ve been able to grow to this point despite the challenges we’ve faced, it means that no amount of challenges can break us anymore.

I attended this event. It’s a personal development seminar, and this speaker talked about excellence and how God is a God of excellence. He spoke about how God looked back on everything he created and said it’s good. It gave me a mind shift. I started to see things this way: If God is a God of excellence, it means that God will not want me to do things in mediocrity. It means that God doesn’t want me to do things in obscurity, he wants me to shine. He wants me to do things the way he’d do them. So, if I say I’m a Christian and I walk in his path, I should do my business the way God would want me to do it. I started adding a touch of excellence to my business. Even though I’d always wanted to do things excellently, it was at that event that I made up my mind and said, “No. Whatever it’s going to cost me, I've got to be excellent in my business. There are no cutting corners; there is no way I want to lower the standard in terms of integrity, customer service, products, management, staffing and recruitment, and financial management.”

Assessing business risks and outcomes

Running a business involves taking calculated risks, and I’d say one of such risks is taking loans. In 2020, I took a loan to expand Threefold. We’ve been running on whatever we could lay our hands on—capital and family money, gifts from friends, but I knew that we couldn’t run on them anymore. Through the help of someone I knew, the loan was facilitated. But the lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t start a business with a loan. When I took the loan, the business was already up and running. So, I wouldn’t say I shouldn’t have taken it. I took the loan at the right time because it really helped us grow Threefold.

But don’t take out a loan to start a business. It’s okay to take out a loan while the business is expanding. And before taking a loan or any risk for your business, make sure your numbers are correct. Make sure you know your numbers so that you’ll know if you'll be able to pay back at the agreed time. For Threefold, we’re able to pay back the loan, and we are good now.

Rewards of running a business and values alignment

The most rewarding aspect of running my own business is that I get to have my time and make decisions that I feel wouldn’t jeopardize my goals and value system. I do say that when you work for somebody, you cannot always call the shots; you can only suggest. But when you run your own business, you can stand your ground on your value system. So, the most rewarding thing for me is that I get to call the shots, stick to my values, and not have to waiver, double-cross somebody, or manoeuvre because of a paycheck.

I wouldn’t say I endorse that everyone should run their own business because not everybody has the tenacity and courage to do so. I’d say:

Know yourself, know what you’re capable of, and know the things you can do before you decide on running your business or working for someone.

Olufunmbi – wife, mom, and business owner

It’s not been easy doing all three together: being a wife, a mom, and a businesswoman. But I believe so much in God and the Bible. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. There are times I tell myself I don’t want to be a mom today, and I’d outsource babysitting to my husband or someone else. On some days, I tell myself I just want to be taken care of. I want to put myself in the position of a wife, and I just want to be pampered. And there are other days I just tell myself I don’t want to be either a wife or mom; I don’t want to do anything today as there’s something about my business I want to tackle. And there are days that I’m all three in the same spot. But I set or give myself space for what I am capable of doing per time. f I’m in a state where I feel I can do it all at once, I do.

Those are the things I do to maintain balance. I really don’t have routines for maintaining balance. Personally, I hate routines. I hate when I have to do things over and over again. I just try as much as possible to not lack in any of my responsibilities as a wife, mom, and business owner.

Support and synergy: navigating business with a spouse

My husband, Max, is my biggest fan. My biggest cheerleader I call him my support system. He’s like the neck that is supporting my head; the body that is carrying my head around. And I won’t lie to you, well, let me let the singles breathe, I’m always grateful to God that I married this man. I’d like to say that this business is his as much as mine. He’s a director, and I’m a director as well. We see ourselves as team players. And navigating the business together has been very easy; we’re friends and a team. When a customer calls or says something to him and I expect him to reply, you wouldn’t be surprised that whatever he says is what I'll say later because our thinking, thought patterns, and actions all sync.

He handles production management and sees to it that we’ve a value system that works. We both sat down and agreed on the value standard, and he ensures our products meet this standard. Then I run the numbers and manage customer relations. He also checkmates me.

Parallels between parenting and nurturing a business idea

The role of a mom is to care for her babies. And I see threefold as a baby as well. Being a mom, you carry a baby for nine months, and on her delivery, you push the baby out. Then you care for, nurture, and watch as the baby grows. This is almost the same thing you do with a business idea. You nurse an idea for maybe a few months, or sometimes it’s not even up to one month. And then deliver. You launch this idea and watch it grow steadily, one day at a time, putting all it needs in place.

So, being a mom helped me see running a business in a new light.

I see business as nurturing a child. And as a mom, you don’t want anything to go wrong with your child. You give it all it takes. I give it all it takes. Every goddamn thing that’s needed to ensure growth.

Empowering children through involvement in business

For my children, I learned early, even before I gave birth to them, that a child’s personality is always different from their parents and their siblings. I tend to look at my children to see what each one prefers to do. I discovered that one of them is actually hands-on. She loves to help, she loves to be a part of what you’re doing, and that’s helping her learn. When a child is tending towards helping, you don’t shut them up, you don’t push them out. So, I allow my children to help in the business This helps them learn:

human relations
communications
work mindset.

Self-care and personal growth

Balancing personal development and self-care with the demands of running a business is a herculean task. But I remind myself that if anything happens to me today, the business will continue. So, for me to give excellent service to my customers and be sane enough to make sound decisions, I need to be in good shape. When I notice I have been stressing myself a lot, I just crawl back into my shell. Maybe get enough sleep, just allow myself to be pampered, or hang out with friends. Anything to just rejuvenate. I read, watch movies, ensure that I attend seminars, or engage in discussions with people that will stimulate my mentality.

It’s important that business owners set aside time to take care of their mental and physical health.

Your body wears and tears with every activity you do. You need time to recover, relax, and rest.
Mind. You need to rest your mind. You need a time when you’re not worrying or trying to figure anything out. Just allow your mind to come back to how it can function well again.

A solid WHY

For someone who is hesitant about starting their own or unsure about taking that leap, I’ll only ask one question: what is your why?

If your reason for wanting to start a business is important, not even the devil will be able to stop you from starting it. Most times, when you ask business people why they’re doing business, they will say that it’s because it’s lucrative, because of the money, prestige, or something else. Now the truth is, if your reason is not justifiable or sound enough, you’ll not be able to push yourself enough to start.

Big-picture wisdom

My big-picture wisdom for life, for business, and for career is this: you’re 10 times more than what you think you can ever be in your mind. If you feel like this is the height you can ever reach, just know that for you to have thought about it, you have 10 times the capacity to be more than that.

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Threefold Agro Consult processes and supplies the best oven-baked, stone-free catfish, dried panla, and snail, among other edible foodstuffs. Contact them via WhatsApp at 08080148655 and follow them on Instagram @threefoldagroconsult