Zakariyau’s resilience: How she built a PR firm with no financial support

Bidemi Zakariyau is the Founder & CEO of one of the fastest growing PR agencies in Nigeria, LSF|PR, a full service public relations agency with core competencies in corporate communications, consumer and lifestyle brands. She is actively involved in advising clients on critical communications strategies and issues. Her work reflects the international scope and breadth of the agency’s offering and has included advising clients on entry strategies into the Nigerian market and ongoing corporate reputation building efforts. Zakariyau recently founded and is the head of business development of The Luxe Digest – a pan-African luxury content platform. In 2015 she was recognised as one of the leading female entrepreneurs under 25 in Nigeria by SME100 and in 2016 she was awarded The Future Awards Africa Prize for media enterprise. Earlier this year, she was recognised as one of the 100 most influential women in Nigeria by Leading Ladies Africa and just recently awarded by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (Lagos Chapter). She is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. She is a board member of Réle Art Gallery. In this interview, she speaks on her journey since moving back to Nigeria and starting her business.

 

What lessons have you learned from doing business in Nigeria the last five years?

Thank you very much. Staying focused no matter the circumstances you’re in is the key lesson I’ve learnt. You’ll go through different challenges, distractions, failure, disappointments, through all of this you have to remain focused on your end goal or what you’re trying to achieve.

Finding and having your own voice is key. So many times people will try to push you in different directions and tell you what they think you should be doing even if that’s not what you’re interested in. Listening is one thing, finding your own voice and focusing on what you really want is another thing.

 

I understand you started off with zero capital and yet the business had funded itself since inception. What id the secret?

I moved back to Nigeria at the end of October 2011 after university. The immediate thing I wanted to do then was join law school or NYSC, but because of the timing, I moved, I was late for both. I decided to intern since I had about eight months before law school started. My legal internship started at Consolex Legal Practitioners, where I was for a month or two and then I moved to Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie for six months.

Interning at UUBO exposed me to a lot in terms of learning about the Nigerian business environment, it was also during this internship period that it became very clear to me that I did not want to practice law. I went ahead to join law school in June/July 2012 because it was very important for me to quality as a lawyer.

I started to pursue my media interests while I was in law school, because I was 100 per cent sure I wasn’t going to be working in the legal field once law school was over, I set up LSF|PR and started working with small brands and taking on small scale projects. I had four main clients then.

Once I was done with law school I decided it was time to focus on my business full time. I had to be very diligent about scaling, I worked from home at the beginning stages, taking meetings with clients at their office. Even with staff teams, I only had an assistant. Everything I made was reinvested into the business and this is what I’ve always done and that’s how we’ve gotten to the point where we are now.

 

Tell me about your recent award. How does it feel being recognised as a young woman and an entrepreneur?

I am truly honoured by the recognition, especially because its from the professional body of public relations in Nigeria, NIPR (Lagos Chapter) and considering the fact that I started my agency with no formal training in public relations, it feels amazing to be recognised for my work leading LSF|PR.

 

Let’s talk a bit about LSF|SME which you created to focus on “growing small businesses, brands and emerging talents” as you put it. I’m curious to know what the drive was towards creating that division.

When I first founded LSF, we were only working with small businesses and fashion brands, we got to a point a where we wanted to change our business strategy and needed to identify what our core focus was going to be as a company because of the opportunities we were getting.

In 2014 our core focus became corporate communication, consumer and lifestyle brands. I had a vision of the sort of clientele I wanted us to start working with and to get there we needed to focus on building a diverse client portfolio within those sectors, which we’ve achieved in the last three years.

I have always felt that small businesses are usually under serviced and left out in a lot of sectors. Everyone wants to service the big multinationals, but we are passionate about SME’s at LSF because they are the driving force behind almost any economy. From a business perspective, the economies of scale derived from servicing small companies also makes a lot of sense so we decided to create a division for SME’s last year.

We are very interested in helping small businesses grow their brands, its amazing to be a part of their growth story and helping them achieve their business objectives. Besides the corporate work, we love fashion, music, art and other lifestyle projects as well, so it was the perfect time to introduce our SME service.

 

In five years since you started, what were the two important lessons you have learnt before venturing into business?

The time value of money and operations research. Let’s just say I learnt the hard way.

 

Aside LSF|PR, you have another business, The Luxe Digest as well. What is it all about?

The Luxe Digest is a Pan-African luxury content platform which focuses on several aspects of the luxury sector. Our aim is to tie related content together in order to inform, inspire and captivate the growing segment of African luxury consumers. Irrespective of their age, gender or interests, our readers find content that resonates with them.

By working with writers in key luxury markets across Africa, The Luxe Digest is a treasure trove of information for luxury consumers and aspirants alike. We aim to create a virtual experience for our audience that informs them about the luxury market. We provide a connection between existing consumers, aspirants and brands affiliated with Africa’s growing luxury market.

 

Why did you feel the need to start this particular brand?

The idea to start The Luxe Digest was a result of my experience in PR. We have represented and currently represent a few luxury brands and there are no luxury media platforms to place clients content. Nigeria and other countries in Africa also have a very small or limited media landscape. I started researching this at the end of 2015 and found that this is a problem across Africa as a whole, except South Africa which is a more developed market in terms of luxury.

With my research findings, I decided that the continent needed a platform that would inform, educate and connect the continent and the world at large, shaping the way the luxury sector is perceived in Africa. Africa is still very much portrayed negatively by Western media. The Luxe Digest is a platform that tells our story, of course with a focus on the Luxury sector.

Africa as a whole is considered the ‘new Asia’ for luxury goods. The world and the people on the continent need to know what we have here. People need to be educated, people need to know that they can go to Zanzibar and have an amazing holiday, go to Morocco and stay in one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, go to Lagos and shop local and foreign designer brands. You don’t need to go anywhere, the entire continent has something to offer and so many people don’t even know this. The Luxe Digest is a platform that is documenting this.

 

Again, PR business is big on contacts. How were/are you able to convince brands to bank on you, especially when starting off, and now that you’re young in the business?

I got my first client by being completely fearless, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in PR so I needed a client to get started. I started by calling different designers randomly from the photo credits they put at the end of articles on different blogs. When I called the person that eventually became my first client, it turned out she needed some assistance for a shoot she had scheduled for the weekend and she said I could come to help. When I got to the shoot, I told her I could do the PR for her brand as well and she told me to send a proposal, she hired me after that and my work exceeded her expectations, she referred me to my second client, who referred me to my fourth and fifth client, slowly I started building portfolio of clients.

Another interesting story is how we got one of our biggest client accounts in 2014, Ledrop Nigeria Limited. We secured Laurent-Perrier champagne as a sponsor for our client’s art exhibition. We secured a lot of media coverage for LP as a result of the partnership and LP is a brand I personally love. A few weeks after, I called the head of sales and marketing and asked for a meeting, I made a case for how we added so much value to the brand from partnering with them and told her that we could do so much more if we represented the brand fully, to my surprise she handed me her business card and told me to prepare a proposal for the twelve key brands they had on their portfolio – I had no idea they had twelve brands, I went there just for LP. I sent a proposal two weeks after and they’ve been our client since then and we manage their key accounts including – Brown Forman (Jack Daniel’s), Remy-Cointreau (Cointreau, Remy Martin, St-Remy and Louis XIII), Glenfiddich and Laurent-Perrier Champagne.

Doing our work well and delivering results is what we’re known for, when you do this, your work speaks for you and clients refer you to other people. This is what I tell my team almost everyday, whatever we tell the client we’re going to do, we must first deliver and then go beyond their expectations, if you’re able to achieve any or both, the client automatically becomes your brand advocate.

 

I know there must have been times you must have felt like giving up. How are you able to pull yourself back up?

This has happened to me so many times, but I know nothing comes easy, big dreams means hard work, getting frustrated, failing and picking yourself up and learning from failure. I know what I want, I know the sort of dream and vision I have for my life, so when I’m going through hard times, I understand its part of the journey and I quickly pick myself up.

 

Why do you think a lot of people are afraid to take the first step when it comes to starting a business?

I think most times, it’s the fear of failing or fear of not knowing how things will work out. Some people would rather stay in a safe place or their comfort zone.

What’s important is getting past those fears and understanding that sometimes failing is the only way you can learn and the only way you can grow. Failing and disappointment are two of the most amazing business experiences you can have, you become fearless when you learn from your mistakes.

 

I know you only represent brands and people you believe in. I’ve got to ask, what are the qualities that attract you the clients you choose to work with?

We look out for clients that take us as their partner, we’re very emotional about the brands we work with, we live and breathe their brand like we own it, so its very important that they consider us as their partner and the feeling is mutual.

We also look for clients that are flexible and open and don’t feel the need to control us, although we understand that sometimes we may be confined to certain rules simply because that’s how the business operates, we want to be able to work within those rules, we look for clients that listen to us and open to our ideas.

 

Some might say streamlining clients as a young business is a little “choosy” especially when starting off, others might say it’s ballsy. I guess my questions are how quickly did you settle on this strategy and why was this important for you to settle on as quickly as possible?

It may sound cliché, but it is not always about the money. There are some companies out there that have not fully figured out or are unclear about their vision. Getting into bed with such clients regardless of budget could spell trouble down the line.

I think having a clear cut strategy has helped us as a business, I knew the sort of company I wanted to build and it was great identifying what our core focus would be very early because it has helped us positioned us exactly where we want to be.

 

What are you inspired by and who are your role models?

I’m inspired to provide solutions instead of complaining. I’m inspired by people who are are surviving despite the odds presented, despite the challenges, and navigating their way through the confusion we live in.  Dr Amy Jadesimi is one of my biggest inspiration, her vision to lessen the country’s dependence on foreign investment and solve critical infrastructure issues in order to push local content and create jobs is admirable. I’m inspired by the people around me who are all go-getters and on a journey to achieving their dreams.