We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nyiko Rikhotso a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nyiko thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?
Sure! One of the most innovative projects I’ve been involved with was when I worked at a start-up. We needed to build a customer service platform to help our customers with their needs quickly and efficiently. We quickly realized that traditional customer service software was too expensive for us to implement, so we had to come up with a creative solution.
Together, with our team and a few members of the public, we created a custom-built customer service software back-end. We built the backend using low-cost technology such as HTML and JavaScript, enabling us to customize the system based on our customer’s needs. The process for creating this platform was a long and complex one, but it allowed us to provide a platform that was tailored to the specific needs of our customers that didn’t require us to break the bank. We were able to quickly improve our customer service by streamlining processes, and the software was a huge hit with our customers. Building a PHP WordPress site with over 250 pages using various API tools which includes an automated sales Funnel system designed to automated all our marketing efforts, including
creating automated emails and follow up emails and follow up calls. I have setup various databases and automated its feeds so that our customers could access and manage their information without any manual effort. I have also setup automated payment gateway integrations and SSL certificates for the site so that all data and customer information is well secured. Finally, I also set up and administered social media campaigns, customer satisfaction surveys, and analytics to measure our efforts including our Mobile shopping App which will soon be launched through the power of AI.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Nyiko Rikhotso and I am an experienced web designer and developer with a background in digital Marketing and information systems. I have over 5 years of experience in the field of information technology. My technical expertise includes a wide range of web, mobile, and software development projects. My experience in system integration has enabled me to work on projects involving integration of multiple third-party applications, APIs, and databases. I have developed complex websites and web applications as well as mobile applications for various industries. I have also developed custom software for clients to meet their needs. My experience has enabled me to work with a diverse range of technologies and be flexible enough to adapt to new ones. I am also passionate about user experience and creating intuitive user interfaces. I Nyiko Rikhotso the founder of Freezy World Online store which was initially purchased from Ready Made stores in the United Kingdom in 2021 thanks to the assistance which came from my mother and ex girlfriend while I was going through challenges financially as my transportation business was affected by the pandemic. I took things to the next level by expanding our reach in terms of partnering with various wholesaler suppliers such as Alibaba ,cj drop shipping ,Ship to the Moon who provide us with custom packaging and flexibility of delivering our products to over 200 countries worldwide. During the initial stages I invested my time every day about a 100-150 hours week in an out to develop a PHP website which has over 250 pages including building our automated sales funnel which is designed to automate all
our marketing efforts. We’ve ran paid campaigns on Google Shopping and Taboola Native ads which we’ve found that our Native ads performance marketing metrics out performed our Google smart Shopping Campaigns which produced 300% Return on ad Spend with a CTR of just over 2.5%.
What I’m mostly proud of is the person I had to become in the process.
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
The acquisition process was quick in 24 hours Freezy World Online store was ready to take orders fully indexed on Google.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Yes, when I started Freezy World Online Store, it was a very small company. Therefore, I needed to find a way to fund it. I was able to find investors who believed in my vision and were willing to fund the startup. I also got a loan from the bank to get the company off the ground. I also tapped into my savings and used credit cards to get the money I needed. Every month, I make sure to put aside some money for my business in order to remain funded and to avoid any financial shortfalls. Funding the business was never easy from taking loans from my mother and ex girlfriend during the initial phase in order to get freezy world going I still remember receiving our first sale in two days from launching the business online. Thanks to Googles free listing on Google Shopping was able to obtain orders which then provided us with the ability of running various A/B testing of our products on Google Shopping and Taboola Native ads which is a Good platform for scaling your business from a performance marketing perspective
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.freezyworld.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freezy.world/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/freezyworldsa
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyiko-rikhotso-8001b988
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@freezyworld8370
Image Credits
Social media team