Dumping Accountancy for grills, chops, barbeque – Affini’s story
By Eberechi Obinagwam
Afinni Oluwatofunmi Oladipo, an Accountancy graduate from the Federal Polytechnic in Ile Ife, Osun State did not set out to be involved in barbeque or anything related to the pastry business. He found himself dragged into catering tasks as a young man who was fresh out of secondary school and living with a church brother. That experience led him to discovering his innate talent in small chops, grills and barbeque. Today, Affini is the owner of Haffinique Grills and Chops.
How it started
Affini, four years after his secondary school, could not secure admission to the university. While waiting for school admission, he went to live with a church brother, a caterer. He said: “Bro Sunday Akinyemi was a church brother. Then, parents could allow you or ask you to go and stay with a church brother they knew was doing well. Because he was a caterer, I had no choice than to do the things he was doing even though those times it looked as if he was forcing me to do them.
“When he wanted to do small chops, spring rolls, skins, the fillings, he would call me, ‘Tobi, sit down here, check this and that thing because you are going to do the next’ and I would put my hands to try them out. I was helping him in all rounds. Most times when we went for an event and there was no waiter, I would volunteer as one,” he narrated during an interview with TheNiche at his work place in Lagos.
Affini, who initially did not love cooking or what he was doing, started developing love for it as he continued to help his church brother. “At a point, I discovered that I was loving what I was doing which at first, was not what I wanted to do at all. I have been this type of person that I had it in mind to make it on time so I felt I could get something working out on time. And my parents taught us that ‘your hand is the best thing you could use to earn a living for yourself’. So, as I continued helping him, even to cook, did I know that I was gaining experience that would lead me into an unexpected opportunities and discoveries of my passion tomorrow. My mom was a caterer too but I was not interested in that. I only wanted to be an Accountant, so that was what I was after until I came to live with him,” he said.
A year later, Affini left the caterer’s house to school when he got admission to Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Ife, Osun State to study Accountancy. In 2011, he returned to Lagos for his one year Industrial Training. While working as IT student at Alpha-Beta, one of his bosses talked about small chops for a proposed event, and immediately, Affini remembered his time with his church brother making small chops and the rest. He got the contract from his boss to make small chops for 20 guests. “It was the first time I would do a personal job but I had to try it out. When I put my hands on it to start, it was very tedious because it’s been a while I did it. It took me overnight to do for just 20 people and because I had collected the job, I had to deliver. When I brought them out, the spring roll was very big and was looking like a donut or sausage roll. I just did it and I delivered it. But the most important thing was the taste. The taste was good but the shape was too big and I just delivered it like that and they accepted it and commended me on the taste because it was not bad anyway,” he said.
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After the first contract, Affini secured another contract worth N25,000 from the same circle for 20 guests, which he considered substantial at the time. “I got another job to make small chops for 20 guests for N25, 000 from the same clique. N25,000 was a big money then. I didn’t even use up to N10,000 to finish the work. When I saw how they enjoyed it, I was so happy and felt satisfied. It was then that I said to myself, I could do this thing. And after that, I started doing it and became serious with it. I posted them on Facebook and after that, I did like more or less a free job in church. That was where I began to come to limelight. I made grills in church for the first time and it turned up well and from there I began to get jobs.”
Not relenting in his pursuit of being an Accountant, he tried writing ICAN exams but could not make it, so he settled for his business, which was already fetching him money. After his one year IT, he went back to school for his Higher National Diploma. Affini said he did not bother going for National Youth Service after his HND, as he was almost clocking 30. “I felt I had no time to waste, instead of going for National Youth Service, it would be better I used the time to develop myself and skill. So, I started up fully with my business, Haffinique Grills and Chops and got it registered.”
Sourcing capital
Affini said starting up, he didn’t have many troubles with finance because his kind of business was a pay before service one. “My customers pay me before service. At most, the person must pay 80-90% of the job. So, I was not putting my money. Starting up was not much of a challenge to me. My challenge was to get perfected on it when I started which I did with time,” he said.
Breakthrough
Affini’s breakthrough came when he secured a job of N140,000 to make small chops for 200 guests. “I got a contract to make small chops for 200 guests for N140,000. It was my first hit in the business,” he said. His breakthrough continued with positive comments from customers and referrals. “With customers satisfaction, and contracts, I was encouraged to stay on. I started loving what I do. I was happy to see people satisfied with what I was doing with my hands. In one of the events I was serving, a woman walked up to me and told her spouse, ‘This is the guy. I want him to do small chops for us in our wedding’. That alone made my day and stirred my love for the job,” he said.
Penetrating the market
Affini said the uniqueness of his work was what sold him to the market. “Your work will always distinguish you. I had eye for good taste so I always make sure that whatever I do has a good taste. Good taste was what sold me to the market. If you can give what people want, the quality of your job will make people come for you. I give what people want and they come to me. And I tell you I am always having jobs. It’s only in this present government that it seems slow because of the high cost of materials and living,” he said.
Challenging experience
Affini has two striking experiences while establishing his brand. His first experience was accepting to make ‘Asun’ a well-seasoned goat meat that is cut into small chunks for a neighbour. The output turned bad because he did not know the secret to making good asun. “It was a new apartment, so I had introduced myself with what I do and my neighbours asked me if I could do asun. I said yes even when I knew that I had not done it before. You know as a business person you do not reject jobs. It was more or less a free job but they paid for the materials. I got the goat meat for it, diced and put it inside the pot to boil. When I opened it, wow it was water and I said to myself, ‘this is asun pepper soup’. I removed the water and put it on the fire again thinking that it would dry, but the water kept coming out. While I was trying to manage the situation, the time to serve the guests with my job was already close because the asun was meant for the after party and those times after party used to start around 4, 5pm so they were already coming with different people,” he said.
Affini didn’t give up, he tried his possible best to salvage the situation as it was already time to serve the guests. “I tried my best and they ate it. They said it was sweet. Taste is my number one priority so it had good taste and because of the taste, they didn’t complain much, but I felt bad and I told myself that no, I’m going to get this thing right.”
Affini sought out opportunities to observe and learn how to make asun from others. He did by attending events. He said he would always walk around catering stand in an event, looking out for an asun vendor. “One day at an event, as I walked to a vendor stand, I saw them putting the meat on a charcoal to dry out the water before dicing it. I said wow this is the secret! This was my mistake. I didn’t dry before dicing. As I saw it, I just turned my back and went home because that was the only thing that brought me to the event. It was as if God just led me to it. And since that day till date, if I do asun for you, you will recommend me to Trump,” he said laughing so hard.
Another challenging experience was having a bad burner that disappointed him in the middle of an event. He said: “Bad burner could lead to total mess in the process of frying your small chops. I had one challenge like that when I was still coming up in the business. I was frying my small chops and along the line my burner stopped working. It was on a Sunday and it was right in the middle of an event that I had been paid for to deliver. I was turning it and a small light was coming out. I tried. I sent people out to see if they could help me get a new burner but unfortunately, it was on a Sunday and there was nowhere to get that on time. The small chops on the fire were soaking oil and were not presentable anymore. Getting a stove or gas was difficult. Before they could bring one, they were already rounding up with the event. So, the owner angrily came and carried everything, including the remaining materials, the fried chops, everything and said I should not bother that she can’t continue with it again even when she saw my efforts, and said she was not going to pay my remaining balance. My small brain at that time was angry. I was like at least you carried the rest of the material. You were supposed to still pay me my balance. I felt bad. It was a terrible experience for me,” he said.
He said while still pondering on his loses, met a friend who settled his doubts. “I met a friend whom I explained everything to and he asked me if I was angry, I said yes. He asked me, ‘Tobi, they gave you a job to do, did you deliver? I said yes. But he said no, that the delivery was if I did the job perfectly to my customer’s satisfaction and I said I didn’t deliver because I had some challenges and he said, it meant I didn’t deliver. He advised me to go back to the customer with small chops to tell him or her sorry. But I didn’t do that because I felt it was not necessary. I regretted not doing it because if I had, maybe something positive would have come out of it. I was not mature enough then. That left me with the idea that when you are given a job and you do not meet up to the expectation, it’s left for the client to consider you. So, if you are given a job, you must try as much as possible to get it done anyhow because that’s what people want to hear. Delivering your job to your customers’ satisfaction is the key. From that day also, any time I am going for an event, I go with two of my regulators to avoid such occurrences,” he added.
