We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Oluchi and Francis Emelogu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Oluchi and Francis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

Being siblings and co-owners of our business can be challenging at times, but the advantages are far more beneficial and outweigh any con we may experience. First and foremost, we trust each other and we know we each have the best interest of the business at heart. We share the same values and vision so it makes it easier to make decisions regarding the business. As first generation Nigerian immigrants, we believe our passion for our culture and language is the major driver in everything we do. We both had similar experiences in Nigeria; going to boarding school, living in the village, learning the language, the food, and the customs. We know how important it is to ensure our traditions are passed on, starting with the language. As a family business, we do not question each other’s commitment and dedication.

Obviously, as siblings, we can tend to butt heads when it comes to how decisions are made. We both can want what is best for the company, but how to achieve that can differ. Thankfully, we are able to practice effective conflict resolution. We take small breaks to gather our thoughts and try to see each other’s perspectives when we’re both calm. Another issue that arose was the fact that our similar experiences limited our innovation. We had the same ideas and thought processes so it helped when we brought on consultants to help us think outside of the box.

We hope to have our children, eventually, join the business because we are creating a legacy that we hope will continue to flourish. We believe in the company and what it stands for so of course we would want our kids to be part of that.

Oluchi and Francis, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Oluchi Emelogu and I am a Nigerian-born American, from the Igbo tribe. Igbo is one of the three major languages in Nigeria and I was fortunate enough to learn how to speak it when I went to boarding school in Nigeria. However, when I got back to US to finish high school, I didn’t have anyone, other than my family, to speak it with. I was slowly losing the language and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to teach my children in the future. My friends weren’t able to speak it because they grew up in the US and their parents either didn’t or couldn’t teach them. I saw this as a problem. So in the summer of 2022, I called up my brother, Francis, and told him my idea. I wanted to make resources for people who were interested in learning Igbo. Francis is an artist so he was on board with making flashcards incorporating original artwork. Thus, Igbo Flashcards was born. Our flashcards provide an easy, fun and quick way to practice learning Igbo vocabulary words. Each card has the phonetic pronunciations of the Igbo words because how the words are spoken is very important in determining the meaning of the words. One of the most unique things about our flashcards is the use of tone marks on every card. Most learning resources do not have them, which does a disservice to learners because Igbo is a tonal language. We hope that anyone who is interested in learning the Igbo language will find this extremely useful and practical.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We sell Igbo Flashcards on our own Shopify website. We looked into using Amazon or Etsy, but the cost of hosting the product on their platform would have cut deeply into our profit margin. We prefer our Shopify website because they make it very easy and user friendly. We also do our own shipping/delivery. It gives us a sense of pride that we are very hands-on and involved in the fulfillment. However, we foresee this being an issue the more our business grows. Amazon or Etsy would be great for visibility and ease of fulfillment on a larger scale, but for now, we like using Shopify.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

For us, Meta Ads have been extremely successful so far. As we continue to tweak our strategy according to the analytics, we hope to grow our clientele even more and create more conversions.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.igboflashcards.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igboflashcards/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/igboflashcards
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/igboflashcards