'Have a passion for what you do and be patient' - Mrs Ayodele

Mrs. Quincy Olasumbo Ayodele , now in her early 50s, is a renowned beautician and pioneer secretary general of the umbrella body of traditionalmedicine practitioners in Nigeria; and  an
adviser for the development of African traditional medicine to the World Health Organization (WHO). Quincy has contributed  significantly to the development of traditional medicine to combat malaria and HIV as well as research and development of African traditional medicine and  integration of African traditional medicine into the healthcare system and many others.

This  has positioned Quincy Herbal Slimmers, a firm that specializes in creating beauty for women and men by offering slimming, tummy blasting, and skin care services among others,  as an  authority in traditional medicine not only in Nigeria, but also across Africa and beyond.

The firm now employs over 100 Nigerians and foreigners at both home and abroad with a well-developed marketing network that distributes its herbal beauty products across the globe. Its headquarters is currently in Oregun, Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos.

The Ogun State-born Ayodele recently spoke to Sunday Sun on how she has turned the beauty company into a multi million naira business. She also spoke about her achievements, challenges  and issues with traditional African medicine.

How did Quincy Herbals Slimmers come into existence?

I started Quincy Herbal slimmers using herbal medicines precisely on June 16, 1996. I had grown up knowing so much about the uses of herbs to solve many health and beauty problems  under the tutelage of my grandma.  And ever since then, God has been giving us progress till date. And up till now, I’m proud to say that Quincy Herbal  Slimmers has been taking the lead in the slimming industry in the country, having been running for 22 years from a very small scale business and now to a conglomerate.

What would you say has kept you going? 

For me, I will say it is my restlessness, perseverance, hardwork and the desire to constantly yearn for the best. Restlessness in terms of searching for the best practice in using herbs to do beauty jobs for my clients. All these wouldn’t have been possible without God backing me.

What advice do you have for younger people who intend to start a business?

They should not wait until they have all the capital. They should be ready to face daunting challenges and be creative and innovative enough to solve them. Hardwork, perseverance and a restless spirit would do a lot to guarantee them success.

If you have an opportunity to do another business or venture apart from what you are engaged in, which would that be? 

I would have entered into the food  restaurant business.  I love cooking as well as eating.  However, over the years, I have tailored it to healthy eating.

How many people are in your employment and how can one motivate workers to get the best from them?

We have over 40 people workings for us and we try to make it a large family. We also have incentives for the very hard worker as well as bonuses in general.  we listen to our workers and actually value their input.

Many youths are searching for jobs, what does it take to be a successful entrepreneur like yourself?

You have to be hard working,  have a passion for what you do and be patient.  Also think big but start small.  I started my business with just N5,000 but I had big dreams.

How is it like doing business in Nigeria?

It’s okay.  Sometimes it can be more of an uphill battle.

How would you advise those travelling abroad in search of livelihood?

I don’t know why they decide to travel abroad as everyone is different with different circumstances.  I won’t judge them. Even Nigeria is a country of immigrants.  However,  I would advise people trying to travel out to think of how best to maximize their productivity based on their current situation before jetting out. Also, don’t even think of traveling out if you don’t have a work permit or resident status abroad.  Life can become tougher than you imagined over there.

So, you think one can stay in this country with all the challenges of electricity, water, roads, and succeed in  a business venture? 

What choice do we have?  This is our country and we have to find a way to make it work.  Yes things are tough in Nigeria and we have a lot of challenges but we also have a lot of positives. We have many resources and investment opportunities that are infinite.  If the country is so bad, why do we have people from other first world countries flocking in to invest in the resources we have in spite of all the “problems”?

In my opinion, Nigeria remains one of the best countries for business opportunities.

What challenges have you been facing? 

God has been awesome in surmounting our challenges.  Initially for my type of business it was breaking the stigma of herbal medicine as being fetish. Also trying to impact change about peoples’ perception about herbal medicine as a woman.  Nigeria was and is still very male chauvinistic.

The main challenges now have been coming from our clients. The challenges have been mainly about the demands of customers. For instance, some Nigeria men who bring their dark-in-complexion wives to me for toning.  Many Nigerian men consider fair-in-complexion women more beautiful than the dark-skinned.

This erroneous concept has made many men prefer their wives fair-skinned and surprisingly they  bring their dark-skinned wives to me to bleach them into fair-skinned women.

A Nigerian man once told me that he wouldn’t appreciate a dark woman. He said that dark women look like masquerades to him. And there are occasions that some men bring their dark-in-complexion wives to us and mandate us that we should change them to light skinned women before returning the women to them. The men would tell me: ‘Quincy bleach this my wife, let her be like you, otherwise, keep her. I don’t want her to return home until that is done.’

What other discoveries have you made in the quest to serve your clients better?

Although, we deal mainly with herbal slimming for women but over the time, we have discovered that obesity is the cause of many other ailments and beauty challenges of women. For instance, many obese people just go dark and on many occasions it is excess deposit of fats that affects their complexion negatively. Unfortunately, most of these women just go for any type of skin toning creams to get rid of their dark complexion, such skin toning creams usually contain hydroquinone which is harmful to their skin. And in Quincy Herbal Slimmers, we preach against the use of hydroquinone as everything we use are derived from natural herbs. And then to cater for an alternative skin toning cream, we researched and came up with many alternative natural, skin protective and friendly herbal creams that would lighten the skin without causing harm that hydroquinone causes. We now have such  herbs in creams and soaps to take care of that challenge.

We also discovered that some hormonal issues associated with treatments on losing weight, darken the skin and we have, through intensive research, made the herbal creams and soaps to take care of the issue.

All these steps towards getting an alternative lightening herbal creams and soaps became important some years ago when I discovered that Nigerian women just preferred to be light skinned because that is what Nigerian men cherish. I used to preach against attempts by our women to lighten their skin but they weren’t listening. They tell me, I don’t understand how they feel because I’m light skinned and over the time, I began to feel for them and decided to create an alternative.

I have discovered some natural herbal products for skin lightening other than the use of harmful hydroquinone and I’m ready to teach other beauticians out there who would like to know the formula so that we can save our people, especially our women from damaging their skin with the use of hydroquinone

I learnt that you are handing over the bulk of the administration of Quincy Herbal Slimmers to your daughter, Tobi Keneey, why? 

Mrs. Tobi Keeney, my daughter is a United States’ (U.S) trained biochemist and psychologist who also has several years ‘ experience of managing hospitals in the United States.

I started the firm with the children even though they were young then. They have been part of the business and I have planned that as soon as they are through with their studies in the United States of America, they would join me in the business and use the knowledge they have acquired to enhance the business.

You would agree with me that when one is managing a business at this time, there is a need to be well-advanced in computer studies and also have a vast knowledge about the new media. This is the edge that my children have over me in managing the business.

I am versatile about using herbs to do the slimming and other beauty related jobs but my children are vast in the use of developed technology and science from the developed world to promote the awareness of my services as well as the products of my business.

What other efforts are you making on improving the products and services of the firm? 

As part of efforts to revitalize and restructure the slimming business, we are currently putting in place a well-equipped factory that would process our herbs and hasten the rate at which we put out our products. We are also going to improve on the packaging, labelling and manufacturing of our herbs so as to further enhance our services. We will be having our herbs in better packages and presentations such as in syrup form among others so that we could meet up with the World Health Organization’s standard.

So, my children would be more active in the area of managing the Quincy Herbal Slimmers firm while I will be an advisor to them because of my experience in the business.

The new restructuring wouldn’t affect the prices of our products in a serious way. As a matter of fact, we are not in the habit of increasing the prices of our products anyhow. We usually have cause to change the prices in line with the inflation rates of the country.

We are having more demands for our products from all over the world now. And that leads to the need for us to mass produce and bring in more technological capacity to reach out to more people who demand for our products.

My daughter who is now going to fully take up the managerial post is a scientist, technologically more advanced than I am and she has got a sound administrative acumen. And again, she is more proficient, younger and energetic than I am.

You a widely  traveled herbal beautician, attending conferences and trainings on the use of herbs for medical and skin cares and currently you are  a member of the World Health Organization and a key representative of the health body in Nigeria, what would you say this exposure has earned you?

My membership as a WHO expert on development of African herbal medicine has exposed me to international links as I have met with many renowned scientists and that is what makes me to know now that we have to now mass produce our herbs in scientific ways. I have also been able to know the policies and regulations of African government on African herbs production and also I’m aware of the standard practice of the WHO on herbal products and uses. And I have also come to know that, unlike other countries, Nigeria is lagging behind in the use of herbal products to boost our economy because we have not  passed a bill on the use of African traditional medicines.

As key stakeholder, can you say traditional medicine is getting government’s support. What can you tell us about the Traditional Medicine Bill in the National Assembly?

First of all, I will commend the government for identifying with traditional medicine practice in Nigeria; I understand there is a department in the Federal Ministry of Health for traditional medicine. I was made the first Secretary General of National Association of Nigeria Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP), the umbrella body that governs traditional medicine in the country. This in itself is a form of support from government.

However, the passage of Traditional Medicine Bill will play significant roles in our practice. If  passed, it will help in regulating the industry fully and it will help in the integration of traditional medicine to the existing health care system so that there can be complete collaboration for efficiency.

All the mechanism for the traditional medicine is ready even by the World Health Organization; we have the mechanism for collaboration, we’ve done research and development on all kinds of herbs, we have perfected that of West African pharmacopeia on traditional medicine and some countries have even started. It  is only Nigeria that has not passed this crucial bill. Traditional medicine is for the people of Africa and it works.

The regulators are ready,  practitioners are ready, the products are also ready. Our lawmakers should make our dreams a reality in this aspect. Traditional medicine is a goldmine if well harnessed, and it can compete favourably with the proceeds from crude oil if well managed.

National Health Care cannot really move forward until they carry us  along so that we can all be at par with the western world. We cannot compare the efficacy of our local herbs with the orthodox medicine. Meanwhile, I shouldn’t be misconstrued because the orthodox medicine also works too.

The Sun