In this interview, entrepreneur and founder of bag-making brand, Uban Leathered, Ubok Ameh, tells FELIX OLOYEDE pitfalls startups must avoid to build their businesses for the long haul
Tell us about Ubok Johnson Ameh
Ubok Ameh is a young enterprising lawyer with an altruistic demeanour, who possesses over nine years of experience in legal practice. My stance against injustice and unfair human treatment and compassion for humanity drove me to start a project, which resolved the cases of over 55 indigent pretrial detainees in less than nine months. I successfully led a team of about 13 lawyers to the quick resolution of their cases, which qualified the project for a €20,000 grant.
My love for craft, entrepreneurship, skill and smart work birthed my Bag Brand Uban Leathered. Uban Leathered has produced well over 2,000 bags and raised revenue of over $12,000 in less than 24 months of launching as a bag business. I have mentored several young people in entrepreneurship and skill development.
My passion for not just hard work but intentional smart work has earned me several awards and grants. I was awarded as one of the top 10 finalists plus a grant from the Creative Business Cup 2023 in partnership with EDC and GEN Nigeria. I have also won several other grants from Flourish Africa, MTN in partnership with the Bank of Industry, She Leads Africa 2023, Impacther, Nairametrics Challenge, among others.
I just concluded my mini-MBA with the International Finance Corporation in partnership with Access Bank Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton. My love for tech also propelled me to help several people start their businesses from scratch as they gain momentum in entrepreneurship and legal compliance.
You said it was through divine mandate that you started UBAN Leathered. Tell us how it started.
While I served in Calabar as a corps member under the Legal Aid CDS as the vice president, I noticed that the bulk of persons, who were awaiting trial or prosecuted were mostly persons without jobs. By the time we helped them out of the correctional centre, they were stranded and had nothing to fall back on. This experience continued till even when I started practising fully in Lagos and started a partnership with a college to help indigent pretrial detainees out of prison.
I had tried to connect them to artisans who could help shape them for life outside the prison walls, but it seemed more work needed to be done beyond just giving them a job. They needed a skill as most people hoped for a white-collar job. It dawned on me that this gap needed to be filled as I was burdened with the challenge of a young person not being creative and productive in their prime. I decided to understand how entrepreneurship worked. I did some courses on entrepreneurship, learned the art of bag making, then put the skill and the training to good use so that ultimately, I could help pass my knowledge to other persons as well as help others build a career path through entrepreneurship and not necessarily depend on a white collar job for survival.
You are a lawyer. Do you still practise?
For now, I have paused on litigation but I offer other legal services that do not necessarily require me to go to the court.
How has law influenced Uban Leathered?
You know that being a lawyer, there is that rebuttable presumption of one being enlightened and knowledgeable. My knowledge of the law strengthened my confidence to start and grow a business in Nigeria knowing that regardless, as long as I am on the good side of the law, I can’t be faulted. I used to be a timid person, especially for fear of the fact that I could be taken advantage of, especially with my vulnerability and my low estate. Studying and practising law had a way of boosting my self-confidence and it translated to me doing the daring things I do or did like starting a bag brand (Uban Leathered). Another influence the law had on me is that it helped me better communicate my business and our offerings, as well as structure my business and make it legally compliant.
How has your business been so far?
Uban Leathered has been growing in bounds by God’s grace. This is a business that started from the spare room of my home in 2021. As the patronage grew, I moved productions from the spare room to the dining area of my living room, till it almost took over the sitting room. My husband had to plead I do not convert his home to a factory. We trusted God for a work production studio and graciously, in July 2023, we moved to our studio. We have consistently experienced exponential growth annually in patronages and productions.
Our production capacity has also grown from manufacturing a few copies annually to several hundred and a few thousand. We are trusting God that we hit a higher production capacity this year 2024 (over 5,000 copies of bags) to be able to meet the teeming bag need of Nigerians and also begin to export.
What are the challenges you are facing with bag-making?
The major challenges I face with bag-making are easy access to capital to grow the business and expand my production capacity, skilled manpower and power supply. I started this business from my savings as a lawyer.
The savings weren’t much, but it was enough to buy me just a manual sewing machine then. As I remained consistent in producing our handmade bags at that time, the small profits kept growing, until I was able to gradually afford an industrial sewing machine and this was the game changer for me. Over time, one industrial machine grew to two and more equipment came in as we progressed in sales. However, this rough and bumpy ride in the initial phase could have been a lot easier if only I had easy access to capital to start and grow the business.
Secondly, because marriage yanked me off from Lagos to Enugu, starting my life in a new city made things a little difficult to navigate initially. I struggled to understand the terrain in the east and how business works. The attitude of people to work here is quite different from what we have in Lagos, especially with the hustle and bustle spirit. Most young people here are not skilled, so I have had to deal with finding capable hands that could help with production.
What I did to complement my business was to start a bag-making academy, where people are taught the art of bag-making and so from that crop of trainees, they can join our production team and get paid for their services.
Lastly, power supply seems to be a national endemic. We are really trying to navigate this area, especially with inflation and the high cost of fuel.
How are you able to manage challenges from imported products?
I don’t know if it’s safe to say I am not necessarily bothered with the threat of imported products, because we are not even producing enough for the demanding customers’ bag needs. It’s that bad that as I speak, we don’t have bags produced or stored down in any warehouse hoping to sell.
This is because as we produce, we sell out immediately. In fact, our production is mostly based on orders, meaning that we are constantly producing. What this tells me is that people are consistently seeking quality products and as long as they can get it from Uban Leathered, we are fine. The challenge now is how to meet their bag need that is almost beyond our production capacity. Another advantage we have is the exchange rate. People are beginning to source for locally made goods to avoid the cost of importation. So, this puts our bag brand in an advantaged position.
How have you been coping with the challenging business environment in the country?
Being positive, trusting God to help me scale through the challenging times, encouraging family and friends, and very understanding customers have helped me cope. As much as possible, I avoid negative comments or discouraging statements. I speak positively to myself and my business and I surround myself with people who are not afraid to give me constructive criticism. I feed myself daily with positive statements even when I see a disappointment; I look for the good in it.
Funding is a major challenge to startups. How do you navigate this?
Initially, it was quite tough when I started with only a few people who believed in my business idea but without capital to start. I had to use my savings from my legal practice, over time, as the patronage grew, the profits were ploughed back into the business and others began to see its potential. Also, last year, I decided to leverage the application some funding organisations put out to help grow my business.
Mentorship is important to the development of startups. Do you have a mentor?
Well not necessarily in the real sense of the word mentor. But because I am a lover of knowledge and the right information, I would say I have several people I selected to listen to. I have surrounded myself with people whom you could call coaches. Some unintentionally and others intentionally put me through growing a business, personal branding, self-development and life generally.
What is your target market?
Our target market at Uban Leathered are students and the working class who need backpacks and or laptop bags, event planners who want conference bags or souvenir bags, fashionable men and women who want customised bags and other brands who want us to produce bags for them based on their specifications.
What are the pitfalls that startups must avoid to enable them to sustain their business?
The truth is every business is unique in itself and so, comparing your journey with another without analysing the peculiar circumstance that surrounds the business could be fatal to your growth and ability to thrive as a business.
Learn to analyse and treat adequately constructive criticism geared towards your growth as a business or business owner. Avoid trying to unnecessarily please people but rather build from inside out rather than outside in. This will help build capacity that could withstand pressure.
Create a system or structure that could run even when you are not there.
Avoid unnecessary financial traps that could sink your business, meaning take one step at a time, especially as a small business. Avoid ridiculous quick growth without deep development (get rich quickly or overnight).
Where do you see Uban Leathered in the next five years?
In five years, Uban Leathered should be one of the biggest manufacturers and distributors of bags in Nigeria. We also hope to be a major bag distributor around Africa as we tap into other continents.
You were a co-founder of the Flemer Project Initiative. What was it all about?
We offered free legal services to indigent pretrial detainees. However, when I relocated out of Lagos, I ended the partnership with my colleague because of distance and my inability to actively be involved as I used to be in Lagos because of distance. A few months after I left, Flemer Project had to end operations.
