Pastoring has gone beyond the pulpit —Pastor Tinu Smith

Pastor Tinu Smith is a woman of many parts. She is an award winning designer and the Chief Executive Officer of Datina Designs, a pastor at The Bridge Network Church, Alalubosa, Ibadan, Oyo State, founder of Treasures Refuge Foundation and the brain behind the yearly musical concert; Colours of Worship. In this interview by TAYO GESINDE, the graduate of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ilorin, Bachelor of Arts in Theology from Evangelical Church of West Africa speaks on why many SMEs find it difficult to access loan and life as a pastor. Excerpts:

Foray into fashion

MY mum was actually a fashion designer, she had a first degree in Fashion and Designing but I didn’t want to go in that direction. I wanted to be a broadcaster; I wanted to be on TV. That was why I studied Communication Arts. When I finished at Ilorin, I was posted to Ibadan for my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).I served with a Christian Organisation called Youth For Christ; an international organisation that worked with young people. But as God would have it, the person I was staying with then was a designer. When I finished service, instead of doing nothing, I decided to learn from her. By the time I finished the one year training, I fell in love with fashion designing and decided not to do anything else. Since then, I have been in the fashion business and I don’t think I can do anything else because I love what I do and I am very passionate about it. I have trained over a thousand people over the years; some of them are in Lagos, Port Harcourt and even outside the country. I also hold a franchise with Europa Groups that owns a chain of over 1100 retail fashion stores worldwide and manage their fashion retail outlet stores in Ibadan.

Challenges faced

Then, there was no business school where you could go and learn how to manage a business, you have to learn on the job so it took me many years to know how to manage money, how to source for fund, how to save, take care of customers and all that. Another issue was finance, I didn’t have enough cash, I was a fresh graduate so I had to go a step at a time. I started with one machine in a small room but today, the rest is history. It was a gradual process, it was tough and there was no formal training on how to manage business. The only thing I was armed with was my skill but over the years, I have been able to go to school to learn how to manage business; I went to Lagos Business School and Cherry Blair Foundation Road to Growth Women’s Programme in Nigeria on how to handle accounting. All these things helped me to groom my business.

On how to be succeed in business

Knowledge is power. It is what you know that will move your business forward. I have been in business for almost twenty five years now and I know that for many years I was going in circles because I didn’t know how to manage the business. When I got scholarship to Lagos Business School, what I learnt there changed my whole life. I was able to see that I needed to structure my business both internally and externally. I also learnt how to grow the business because it was after I attended that the business started growing. I was able to recruit the right staff for the right position and was able to structure the business in such a way that I can travel for a month or more and the business can run without me. If you are so attached to your business that when you are not there it cannot run then, you are not running a business. Once there is a structure; whether you are there or not, things will work because your staff know what to do. When you do this, you as the owner will be able to think on how to grow the business and get more clients. Anybody running a business must go through business training to learn how to do book keeping and accounting because all these things affect businesses.

If you want to access fund for your business you will be asked to bring your records and that is why many SMEs find it difficult to access loan. Passion is also very important in business. You must be passionate about what you do and have a unique selling point, something that will separate you from the pack. You must also have a good customer service and build a relationship with your customers outside the office. Finally, you should be able to evolve every day. Things are changing so you can’t afford to be static and that is why you need to improve yourself and go for trainings regularly.

Combining business with home front

The secret to that is my spouse. He is my friend and my number one supporter. From the beginning, I married someone that our vision is in tune together and this makes it easy for us to work together. When it comes to my music, I plan, he executes. We are always together. That is why it is important to marry someone with the same vision and that is going in the same direction. He understands how you are wired and makes it easy for you to do what God has called you to do. I married my friend, we understand each other and we take roles in turn.

Life as a pastor

Pastoring is beyond the pulpit because if you stay within the four walls of the church, there is a limit to what you can do. Being able to make an impact is about going out of our immediate environment to reach out to people. Even the Bible says that we should go into the world. There are larger crowd out there that you need to reach out to and make an impact in their lives. For instance, I have a friend who is into brothel ministry, you can’t stay in the church and expect those ladies to come to you, you have to go to them and talk to them. Get the ones that are tired of prostitution, bring them out and rehabilitate them. Personally, I minister to girls who are broken, abused and have low self esteem. We mentor and counsel them to value themselves and believe in themselves. We also empower by training them and getting jobs for them.

On the increase in number of relationship coach in Nigeria

When it comes to relationship issues, everybody is just trying to contribute her own quota to making it work. You see all the issues stem from the family. People don’t train their children well, they don’t give them the right values so, it is only God that can help us. The reason we are having coaches is because we are seeing it as an issue that is becoming a big deal especially now that young marriages are collapsing at six months, eight months. It is because family values are not there. Parents are not giving their children attention; everybody is looking for money and this is affecting the way children are brought up. We need to focus on the family; parents need to come together and raise up their children in the right way; give them values, teach them morals and the word of God.

My motivation

I think it is my God-given ability. That is how God has wired me. I enjoy everything that I do. I do things that I am passionate about, I write, I blog about relationship because I am a relationship coach. My husband and I have a couple’s ministry called One heart, with about 1,500 followers and we host a monthly couple’s fellowship in our house. I am also a gospel artiste, I love to sing. They are things I naturally love to do so I don’t find them to be stressful.

Advice to young people

Set goals for yourself because if you don’t have goals you will just end up anywhere .Also keep good company as this will inspire you to do better and work very hard.