Do What You're Passionate About And Don't Be Afraid Of Starting -Muhammad Abdulwahab

Muhammed Abdulwahab is the founder and CEO of Foodoor online in Minna, Niger state. Foodoor online specialises in food & items delivery services. He spoke with TMG about the business's success and challenges. 

TMG> Tell us about yourself

Muhammed: I'm Muhammed Abdulwahab, born and brought up in an urban settlement along Pantaker Gulubi Road, Tundun Nupawa in Kaduna state. I attended Mashhad International School, Kaduna for my nursery and primary education after which I proceeded to Government Secondary School, Tundun Nupawa for my junior secondary education and then Best Start International School for my Senior Secondary School Education.

After my secondary education, I applied for the NDA, went for a 2- weeks screening but unfortunately, I wasn't shortlisted as a finalist. In 2014, I moved on to seek admission in the Federal University of Technology, Minna and I was granted admission in 2015 to study Mathematics and graduated in the year 2021.

I graduated from FUT with B-TECH in Mathematics, Computer Software and hardware Engineering, front end Web design and critical thinking.

TMG> With your background in Computer engineering, what made you go into food delivery business?

Muhammed: While I was in my 400 level, I was doing my internship at Colab Innovation Hub at the time and I had a problem with getting food to my location due to my busy schedule or tiredness from work. As I moved on to research, I discovered it wasn't a personal problem and lots of people around me had the same issues. As a critical thinker and with the aid of my mentor at Colab at the time, Mr Yusuf Lenge, I instantly started thinking of ways this problem could be solved. We came up with the conclusion that the solution would be to devise a way to help people get food to their locations without stress or having to go through the whole process themselves and that was how the food delivery idea came up. My mentor helped in test running it and it was successfully on the first try.

Foodoor was officially launched on the 8th of September, 2019.

TMG> Tell us everything you do and the process of how food gets to a client?

Muhammed: Let me take you through the costumer's journey.

The costumer contacts us via our phone number or through any of our social media platforms to place their order from their preferred restaurants, a dispatch rider is then sent to pick up and deliver the food to the costumer's location. The costumer either pays cash on delivery or through a bank transfer before the delivery.

TMG> What sort of food does your company deliver to people?

Muhammed: We deliver cooked meals from popular restaurants and mobile kitchens according to the costumer's preferences.

TMG> Which areas do you need to improve in your company?

Muhammed: The major parts we're looking to improve in our company are our delivery time, getting more bikes and getting more riders.

TMG> What do you feel is the next step in developing your delivery skills?

Muhammed: Automating the costumer's journey through e.g a mobile app, hereby improving the costumer's experience, getting more bikes, improve on delivering to other states and starting a franchise model.

TMG> What are some of the challenges you have faced in starting your company and challenges you are facing today?

Muhammed: One of the major challenges at the launch was funding because we were starting with practically no bikes and had to manually get the food to clients and that involved me taking commercial bikes to buy the food and deliver it to the costumers. A challenge we're facing presently is inadequate man power and delivery equipments like bikes.

TMG> What style of management do you think works in becoming successful at your kind of business?

Muhammed: My management style is more consultative and at the same time, democratic. Trust and confidence is placed in our employees to seek out their opinions and reaching decisions with their input regarding issues they face on the job but still being responsible for making the final decisions.

TMG> Tell us about a successful delivery pitch you have used for a difficult client. How were you able to deliver to him/her?

Muhammed: At launch, it was difficult getting awareness out and building trust with our costumers based on the fact that Foodoor was the first of its kind in Minna. We managed to start building that trust by asking costumers to pay on delivery as there was no professional means for awareness and we started seeing visible changes from there on out.

TMG> Food is something one really needs to be careful with in terms of healthy environment and handling; how do handle foods in this process of delivery?

Muhammed: At launch, we used disposable paper bags to repackage the food to ensure it wasn't tampered with before getting to the costumers.

TMG> Tell us how you manage other responsibilities of your businesses?

Muhammed: A costumer service agent was employed to take orders and attend to costumer needs and complaints. And also a dispatch rider to pickup and deliver.

TMG> Have you ever lost during delivery and what did you learn?

Muhammed: Yes, after losing, I learnt to do more of record keeping and taking note of problems encountered during the job, then restrategize again to avoid such situations. 

TMG> How do you manage risks, in terms of damages or loss?

Muhammed: As the sole proprietor, all cost of damages goes to the profit so we try as much as possible to minimize risks and damages.

TMG> How do you keep up to date on your target market?

Muhammed: Doing market research and survey, listening to costumer's requests and complaints. Constantly bootstrapping on ways to improve our service and costumer's experience.

TMG> When do you stop pursuing a client?

Muhammed: When we've tried as much as possible to meet up with our client's needs and demands.

TMG> What motivates you?

Muhammed: My background is my biggest motivation and wanting to make a difference in any situation and environment I find myself.

TMG> What is your ultimate career aspiration?

Muhammed: To obtain an MBA professional course which will help improve my business and management skills and dive into bigger business opportunities to bootstrap and solve human problems using the population of Nigeria as a strength.

TMG> What way do you think your organization could do better?

Muhammed: Registering more vendors for more varieties, improving our delivery time and having a more professional costumer service to attend to costumer's need and demands.

TMG> What’s your approach to handling customer objections?

Muhammed: By being patient and understanding, listening and accepting the blame.

TMG> Tell us about the greatest goal that you’ve ever accomplished professionally?

Muhammed: Starting with nothing then getting bikes at higher purchase of about 1.2million in total and paying it all back in a year and six months.

TMG> Tell us something you would like to learn or improve upon? 

Muhammed: I'd like to learn more about management skills, professional approach, networking and funding pitch.

TMG> How do you keep a smile on your face during a hard day to make sure your clients feel good?

Muhammed: Thinking about all the milestones from my background, thinking of where I'm going and not letting emotions consume me.

TMG> What's your advice to young people who want to be into business like yours?

Muhammed: Do what you're passionate about and don't be afraid of starting. Capital is not always a fundamental of starting a business.

TMG> How do you socialise and when?

Muhammed: In my free time, I hang out with friends and meet new people and I also enjoy playing board games.