We were lucky to catch up with Sylvia Emuwa recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sylvia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
As a business owner, I can say that I”m happy that I own a business and that myself and my husband have created something great, with God’s help. However, most business owners like ourselves have wondered, “should I have left that (stable) job?” Like most big decisions, you have those moments where you wonder if you made the right move, especially in today’s world of social media and “instant” success stories that seem to evade your life. The last time I asked myself that question, I was cutting my budget to make ends meet. We were also in the middle of COVID when supply chain was horrible for everyone and we couldn’t get our customers’ orders out in time due to dried up supply. Sure, things were out of our hands, but it made it no better. Fast forward to the rebound, and the reality is, you will still have problems as a business owner. Finding the right staff, supply chain, retail problems (IYKYK), not to mention balancing your family and spiritual life so that you don’t implode are all part of trying to be a business owner. The reality that to grow a good business takes time when the outside world thinks you “should have made it big by now” hits hard sometimes, but even with all of that, I would not change my decision. I have the chance to step out on faith and create a legacy in a different way!
Sylvia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Itchy skin, cloth diapers and a big family. As a mother of four, my motivation has always been to take care of my family. My husband/ co-founder actually refers to me as his protector (whoa!) given my incessant focus on making sure that everyone is taken care of. Cloth diapering became another means for me to make sure that my kids had the best chance at being rash free after our discovery with this early on. The only downfall was that all of the “plant based” alternatives we tried required too much work, too much product yet not enough consistently clean results. This lingering poopiness really was a set back for us. This issue got me thinking about something different for our babies and it also led me to turn my attention to my husband’s silent suffering. Maybe it was a blindspot, but as I got further into my curiosity I started to notice that my husband and one of our older kids taking turns scratching their backs on corner walls around the house. This was odd, as we knew we had eczema appropriate products but something wasn’t measuring up. At that point, I began to look at the ingredients of all the different detergents in our laundry closet as there were five different brands, all for different users. Low and behold, I got an idea. “What if I could create something both safe and effective for every BODY?” My dad’s lectures came flying at me at that point. He’d taught me to find a need and fill it so that’s what I sought to do. Dinobi, which means precious in Igbo (a tribe in Nigeria that my husband belongs to) is a brand centered around the belief that all skin is precious and that’s where our custom formulations begin, with skin in mind!
Although we led with our Original Lavender, we took the time during our hardest moments (there’s that pivot again) to develop three additional detergent scents (unscented, citrus clove, and bergamot & lime), as well as a premium dish soap which is available now! What we want people to know is that we have integrity and quality is our brand.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The lesson that I have had to unlearn as of late is that things may not always look and turn out how you THOUGHT they should, but that doesn’t mean they don’t turn out for the best. You are supposed to have a vision for your business, however the EXECUTION of that vision may look different than you anticipated. For example, I thought that applying similar systems/processes from corporate America would work for our business, when in fact, owning a business forced me to constantly pivot and sometimes, “build the plane on the way down”. There is no set path, way or formula that will guide you as a business owner to your goal simply because your business will be as unique as you! You can have two of the same “kinds” of business, but they may operate very differently. So with that, I have had to learn to “update” my execution to align with my vision and pivot faster. Letting go of what you think things “should” look like, along with pivoting as quickly as possible is imperative to running a successful business and maintaining longevity.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
We had a beast of a time during COVID. At that time, supply chain was horrible at best. Our progress went from full steam ahead to grinding to a halt, and we had orders outstanding for months. We had to consistently communicate with our customers (both retail and DTC) that we were a real business and were having a tough time like everyone else. We have some true ride or die customers who are still with use despite the supply chain issues because they believe in our product and our story, which is amazing! What most people do not know is that larger companies will usually get first dibs when it comes to manufacturing. They simply have more resources. But thankfully we pivoted in our processes and were finally able to get orders out. We had to give discounts and or refunds and took a loss, however, again, we pivoted!! We were able to win most of our customers back with our consistent communication, improved innovation, and have won even more! We could have closed our business and threw up our hands, but we did not. We believed (and so did our customers), and we are still here positively disrupting the marketplace.
Contact Info:
- Website: dinobidetergent.com
- Instagram: @dinobi_detergent
- Facebook: Dinobi Detergent
- Linkedin: Sylvia the Detergent Mom
- Twitter: @Dinobidetergent
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dinobidetergentllc1342
Image Credits
Josh Taylor