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The BusinessDay CEO Magazine August 2017

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<strong>The</strong> <strong>BusinessDay</strong> <strong>CEO</strong>, Aug <strong>2017</strong> | 23<br />

Olamide Jinadu: What was the name of this restaurant?<br />

Chef Eros: La Saisson, it was a little corner-piece building in partnership with<br />

Cakes by Tosan on Raymond Njoku.<br />

Olamide Jinadu: So what were your major challenges, when starting up?<br />

Chef Eros: I didn't really have any challenges starting up because I worked<br />

from home in 1004, which was fully serviced meaning that I didn't have any<br />

light issues. I would say my major challenge was accessibility to raw materials<br />

because I needed to import a lot the things I needed but as time went on I<br />

found people that made them here, and I was also able to sort my packaging.<br />

<strong>The</strong> other challenge I faced was staffing as we all know that can be pretty<br />

difficult getting them to deliver the same results, so it's still something I still<br />

struggle with. I started my business with just fifteen thousand naira, and what I<br />

did with that was return whatever I gained from my sales back into the<br />

business until I was able to get investors . As the business started growing I<br />

started to get support from a financial institution and that was how I was able<br />

to move to my current location.<br />

Olamide Jinadu: Did you<br />

ever have to deal with<br />

any cultural barriers to<br />

entry being male?<br />

Chef Eros: Oh yes! <strong>The</strong><br />

first thing I heard in the<br />

press was that I was a<br />

homosexual just because<br />

I baked cookies. I wasn't<br />

particularly surprised<br />

because I'd heard a lot of<br />

that being said during my<br />

restaurant days and I just<br />

figured that it was just<br />

how the average<br />

Nigerian felt towards a

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