Damola: Good day everyone, my name is Shodunke Damola from InsideOjodu Magazine, with me here is Tunde Ganiu C.E.O of Festus Vulcanizer
Damola: Good afternoon
Ganiu: Afternoon
Damola: Could you tell us about yourself?
Ganiu: Yes, I’m a native of Ibadan and I came to Lagos to work, so I thought of the work I could do, I decided to learn vulcaniser, so that I can enrich myself.
Damola: What was your background in Ibadan, which school did you attended?
Ganiu: I attended primary school and secondary school. I went to Baoku Memorial School, Moko Ibadan and I went to Ansarudeen Grammar School, Liberty Road, so I decided to come to Lagos, when I couldn’t finish my studies, I came to Lagos to work.
Damola: That’s good, so can you tell us when you started this work?
Ganiu: I started this work in 1994, I left the work for sometime thinking the work is too hard for me to do, I came back to it in 1996, so I can say that it was 1996 I started, because in 1994 I never showed interest in the job, so I came back in 1996, because there is a Yoruba adage that says, it is where there is much difficulty you see a man, so that adage prompted me to come back to the work in 1996.
Damola: How easy was starting up?
Ganiu: Ah, you know then I was still small, and it wasn’t that easy because the process always scares me, but later when I started removing tyres, as you know one is prone to mistakes when one is not experienced or knowledgeable about a field and this job is not easy like that, at times if they bring tyres, to remove it is a problem for me, but with the help of my seniors, they encouraged me, they told me it isn’t difficult, that I can do it, if they can succeed in doing it, I could too.
Damola: What you are trying to say is that you got your confidence from your seniors, that’s good.
Damola: When you have multiple jobs at a time, how do you tackle them?
Ganiu: Enh!!! When we have multiple jobs our customers need to exercise patience, but we attend to them on a first–come, first–served basis, so we can be fast to deliver their work, so I tell most of them to please exercise patience as I will attend to them.
Damola: What is the biggest failure you’ve experienced, could you tell us?
Ganiu: HAA! My biggest failure was when I burst a customer’s tyre!
Whilst pumping the tyre, I never knew the tyre has marks, but the customer was understanding and supportive. We resolved the problem by contributing money from both sides and got another tyre.
Damola: What did you learn from your failure?
Ganiu: From my failure, I learnt that before I start pumping tyre I have to take note of the tyre’s status, even if the customer asks me to pump 50psi, I would accept that in my mind but because of the situation of the tyre, I would pump to 40psi just to protect the customer while driving and the tyre from bursting, that is it.
Damola: If you were not into this business what would you have been doing?
Ganiu: If I am not into this business, I would have gone for tailoring, let’s assume I did not come back then, tailor would have been the choice for me.
Damola: What advice do you have for budding entrepreneur?
Ganiu: My advice for today’s youths is that they should not be lazy and stop thinking it’s a dirty job for them to do, because most of the youths nowadays want to be neat, but if you did not look at that aspect or thinking of what your friends are saying and you face it, you will be successful.
Damola: Thank you