Virtue Ottoh

“Your Food Business Is Not Making Money Because You Don’t Know Your Numbers.”

Your food business may be busy, but is it actually making money?

One of the biggest mistakes I see food business owners make is setting their selling price based on what competitors are selling.

“Others are selling it for ₦2,000, so I will sell mine for ₦2,000.”

But have you asked yourself:
• How much does it actually cost me to produce one unit?
• Did I include packaging?
• Did I include gas, electricity, transportation and labour?
• What percentage of my sales price is my profit?
• Am I making profit or simply generating sales?

High sales do not always mean high profit.
You can sell out every day and still struggle financially if your pricing is wrong.

Before you increase your production, employ more people or spend more money on advertising, know your numbers.

Your food business needs more than good food.
It needs proper costing, strategic pricing and good financial decisions.

If you don't know your exact cost per unit, you don't really know how much you're making.

Food business owners, learn to price with numbers, not emotions.


To learn more you can join The Ultimate Food costing and pricing school.

Link for registration is in the comment section.

Kindly follow for more content on Food Business.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel "Virtue Ottoh"

Virtue Ottoh
Food Business Coach

4 days ago | [YT] | 4

Virtue Ottoh

YOUR CUSTOMER IS NOT EVERYBODY

One of the biggest mistakes I see food business owners make is trying to sell to everybody.

“People said my product is too expensive, so I reduced the price.”
“Someone said they don't like the packaging, so I changed it.”

“A customer said they prefer a different flavour, so I added it.”
Before long, the business owner is running a business based on everyone else's opinions instead of a clear customer strategy.

This is why you need an Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA).
Your ideal customer avatar is a clear picture of the person your product is specifically designed to serve.

For example, if you sell healthy granola, your ideal customer might be:
A busy professional or parent who wants a convenient, nutritious breakfast/snack, values quality ingredients and is willing to pay for a healthier option.

Once you know this person, your decisions become easier.
You know what to post.
You know where to advertise.
You know what packaging will appeal to them.
You know what price range makes sense.
You know what problems your product should solve.
And most importantly, you stop trying to please everybody.

BUT HERE IS THE PART MANY FOOD BUSINESS OWNERS GET WRONG:
You should listen to your customers, but you don't have to obey every customer.
WHAT SHOULD YOU TAKE FROM YOUR CUSTOMERS?

Take their patterns, not just individual opinions.
Pay attention to:
• What they repeatedly complain about
• What they repeatedly ask for
• Why they buy from you
• Why they don't buy
• Which products they buy most
• What they say about your taste, packaging and convenience
• What they are willing to pay for
• What makes them come back
• What they say about your competitors

These are valuable business insights.
If 20 customers independently tell you that your packaging is difficult to open, pay attention.
If several customers consistently ask for a smaller, more affordable pack, investigate the opportunity.
If your target customers repeatedly say they love your product but find it difficult to access, that's a problem worth solving.

WHAT SHOULD YOU NOT TAKE FROM CUSTOMERS?
Don't take every suggestion as an instruction.
One customer saying:
“Your product is too expensive”
doesn't automatically mean your price is wrong.
One person saying:
“I don't like the flavour”
doesn't mean the flavour should be changed.
One person saying:
“You should add this product”
doesn't mean you should start producing it.
And one person asking for credit doesn't mean you should give credit.
Your customers can give you information, but you are responsible for making the business decision.
This is where knowing your numbers, your market and your ideal customer becomes extremely important.
Before changing anything, ask:
Is this feedback coming from my ideal customer?
Is this a repeated pattern or just one person's opinion?
Will making this change improve the business?
Does it align with my brand and business goals?

Remember:
Listen to your customers. Study your customers. Learn from your customers.
But don't let every customer run your business.
You are the business owner.
Your job is not to please everybody.
Your job is to build a profitable business that consistently creates value for the right customers.
Who is your ideal customer?
If you can't describe them clearly, it's time to create your customer avatar.

I'm rooting for your success.

Virtue Ottoh🍎

#foodbusiness
#foodbusinesscoach
#foodbusinessowner
#virtueottoh

1 week ago | [YT] | 8

Virtue Ottoh

Hello Friends,

A new video is up

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

Virtue Ottoh

ANTS & HONEY: DOES THIS TEST REALLY PROVE YOUR HONEY IS ORIGINAL?
“Leave the honey somewhere. If ants come, it is fake.”

Have you heard this before?
Let me tell you something as a food business owner: the presence or absence of ants does NOT prove whether honey is original or adulterated.

Yes, ants can be attracted to original, pure honey because honey naturally contains sugars. But whether ants come to it can depend on several factors, including the type of ant, the environment, how exposed the honey is, and the concentration of sugars.
So, ants coming to your honey does not mean the honey is fake.

And ants refusing to come to your honey does not automatically mean it is pure either.
This is one of the many myths surrounding honey.
If you want to know whether honey is genuine and meets quality standards, don't depend on internet “home tests.” Proper sourcing, good handling, quality control, moisture testing and, where necessary, laboratory analysis are far more reliable.
As consumers, let's stop using ants as our honey quality inspectors!

And as food business owners, let's educate our customers instead of promoting tests that have no scientific basis.
Original honey should be backed by proper quality practices, not myths.

Buy from a trusted source. Ask questions. Demand quality.

Have you ever heard someone say, “If ants come to honey, it is fake”? Tell me in the comments.

For your original honey please contact Veeclassic Foods Limited on 07010699344

For more content about food and food business, Please follow me and subscribe to my YouTube channel "Virtue Ottoh.


I'm rooting for your success.
Virtue Ottoh🍎

#virtueotroh
#originalhoney
#honeysupplier
#foodbusinesstips
#howtoknoworiginalhoney

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 5

Virtue Ottoh

THERE IS NOTHING MODEST ABOUT STAYING SMALL

There is nothing wrong with starting small.

In fact, every big food business you admire today probably started with a small kitchen, a few customers, limited capital and plenty of challenges.

But please, do not confuse starting small with being satisfied with staying small.

If you have the capacity to produce more, learn more, serve more customers, employ more people and create more impact, then you should be thinking about growth.

Your food business should not remain at the same level for years simply because you have become comfortable there.

Look for ways to grow.

Improve your products.
Build better systems.
Increase your production capacity.
Learn marketing and sales.
Build a strong team.
Enter new markets.
Get your products into more locations.
Explore supermarkets, distributors and direct-to-consumer sales.
Invest in proper packaging and branding.
Keep learning.

Because growth is not just about making more money.

When your food business grows, your impact grows too.

A bigger food business can:

• Create jobs for other people.
• Give farmers and suppliers more business.
• Put quality food in the hands of more consumers.
• Support families through employment and income.
• Contribute more taxes and revenue to the economy.
• Develop new and better food products.
• Create opportunities for other small businesses.
• Inspire other entrepreneurs to believe that they can build something meaningful.

Think about it:

When you grow from producing 20 packs a day to 200 packs, you are not just selling 180 more packs.

You may be creating work for a production assistant, a driver, a designer, a distributor, a farmer, a packaging supplier and several other people along your value chain.

Your growth can become someone else's opportunity.

So yes, start small.

But don't build a permanent home in your starting place.

Ask yourself:

“What can I do differently this year to take this business to the next level?”

There is nothing wrong with being small.

But there is also nothing admirable about deliberately remaining small when you have the capacity to grow.

Build.
Expand.
Create jobs.
Serve more people.
Solve bigger problems.

Let your food business grow into the impact it was created to make.

I'm Virtue Ottoh
I'm rooting for your Success.

Keep Growing.

#FoodBusiness #FoodBusinessCoach #FoodEntrepreneur #FoodBusinessNigeria #BusinessGrowth #FoodIndustry #Entrepreneurship #BusinessTips #virtueottoh

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 10

Virtue Ottoh

DON’T SELL TO SUPERMARKETS ALONE.

I know this may sound strange, especially if you are a food business owner dreaming of seeing your products on supermarket shelves.

But hear me out.

I have food business owners who find me through my YouTube channel and one of the things they are most excited about is getting their products into supermarkets.

And I understand why.

It feels like a big achievement when you walk into a supermarket and see your products beautifully displayed on the shelf.

But there is something I always tell them:

DON’T BUILD YOUR ENTIRE BUSINESS AROUND SUPERMARKETS.

Let me share a personal experience.

At some point in my business Veeclassic Foods Limited we had a single supermarket owing us money on 10 different unpaid invoices, for 8 weeks, at the same time we also had some few unpaid invoices with different supermarkets and this almost crippled our operations. We needed cash to fund the business and it was really frustrating.

Imagine producing your goods, supplying them, paying for raw materials, packaging, transportation and labour and then waiting to be paid.

Meanwhile, you still have bills to pay and production to fund.

That experience taught me a very important lesson:

A supermarket should be ONE of your sales channels, not your ONLY sales channel.

If you want to supply supermarkets, please do.

But while you are supplying supermarkets, build a strong direct-to-consumer channel too.

Sell directly to:

• Individual customers
• WhatsApp customers
• Corporate organisations
• Churches and religious organisations
• Schools
• Offices and staff communities
• Restaurants and cafés
• Hotels
• Event planners
• Gift box companies
• Online customers
• Distributors and wholesalers
• Farmers' markets and food fairs
• Pop-up markets and exhibitions
• Subscription customers
• Your own physical store
• Social media communities

This way, if one supermarket delays payment, your entire business doesn't come to a standstill.

And here is another lesson I have learnt from the Nigerian market:

Sometimes, the power dynamic changes when supermarkets come looking for your brand instead of you constantly chasing them.

When you are the one desperately trying to get your products into their stores, you may find yourself accepting their payment terms because you want the opportunity.

But when your brand becomes desirable and supermarkets start asking, “How can we stock your products?”, you have a much stronger position to negotiate.

That is why I don't just tell food business owners:

“Go and look for supermarkets.”

I tell them:

BUILD A BRAND THAT SUPERMARKETS WILL WANT TO STOCK.

Build demand.

Build your customer base.

Build your social media presence.

Build trust.

Build a product people ask for by name.

Build a database of direct customers.

Build multiple revenue channels.

And please, if you must supply supermarkets, choose your retail partners carefully.

Find out their payment structure.

Understand their credit terms.

Know how long they typically take to pay.

Don't just be excited because they want your products on their shelves.

A sale is not really a sale if it destroys your cash flow.

Your business needs revenue, but it also needs cash flow.

So yes, sell to supermarkets.

But don't let supermarkets become the only people who can put money into your business.

Build a business that can survive even when one customer delays payment.

And ultimately, my goal is for you to build your brand so strongly that instead of constantly asking supermarkets to stock your products…

SUPERMARKETS START COMING TO YOU.

If you're a food business owner, what has been your experience supplying supermarkets?

Have you ever had a supermarket delay your payment?

Share your experience in the comments.

I'm Virtue Ottoh, I'm a food business owner who shares content about the food industry; how to start and grow your food business. If this sounds like what you love or do,

Kindly follow me and Subscribe to my YouTube channel "Virtue Ottoh"

I'm rooting for your success
Virtue Ottoh🍎🍎🍎

#foodbusiness
#foodbusinessowner
#foodbusinessinnigeria
#foodbusinesscoach
#virrueottoh

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 14

Virtue Ottoh

Hello Friends,

This video will blow your mind.
These 5 reasons can hinder the growth of a food business.
Kindly Watch, Subscribe, Like, Comment, Share.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

Virtue Ottoh

3 WOMEN in BUSINESS Who Are Changing the Way I Think About Business

These women are not just making money. They are building systems, structures, brands and businesses worth studying.

I introduce to you 3 women who constantly challenge my thinking and inspire me to become better at business.

They are doing incredible numbers in their businesses, and what amazes me even more is the structure, processes and wisdom behind their results.

Honestly, these women should be studied as a course in the university!

Let me start with Ma Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze .

I bought about five or more of her classes, trainings and courses, I also follow her teachings on Facebook and I can confidently say that when it comes to marketing and doing big numbers, she is the GOAT.

Her teachings are simple, practical and easy to understand, yet the results are profound.
She operates with a level of wisdom that is difficult to explain. A lot of what I know today about marketing, showing up consistently and putting yourself and your business out there came from learning from her.

If you are serious about business, please follow her. And if you have the opportunity to take her courses, invest in yourself and learn.

Next is Ma Nelly Agbogu

I joined the very first cohort of her Marketing and Structure School, and honestly, calling it a school almost feels like an understatement.
It was an MBA in practical business!

Over 40 sessions covering different aspects of business, and the icing on the cake was bringing in different industry experts and giants to share from their wealth of experience.

Nelly also runs a cassava biscuit processing company and is doing incredibly well.
If you want to learn about distribution, business structure, systems and how to build a business that can actually function beyond you, Nelly is someone you should be watching.

Her Marketing and Structure School is available, kindly enroll.
You can thank me later.

Then next is Ma Augusta Nkanu
I actually heard about her through Ma Chioma Ifeanyi Eze.

She was also invited to speak at Nelly Agbogu's Marketing and Structure School, and for the first time, I heard her say that she was running about 29 adverts DAILY.

I was like… WHAAAAAT?!

You may even wonder why her adverts seem to follow you everywhere. You see them on social media, and before you know it, they have entered your dreams😁. Those adverts remind me of Temu adverts, it's everywhere you go.

But beyond the adverts, what really caught my attention is the system behind the numbers.
Her business reportedly fulfills about 500 or more orders daily, and somehow, she still manages to maintain her steeze.

How does she do it?
That's exactly the kind of knowledge entrepreneurs need to learn.

She has a training coming up, so if you want to understand more about advertising, sales and scaling, please look out for it and enroll.

These three women have impacted my life in ways I cannot fully explain.

Through their content, their trainings and, most importantly, the businesses they are building, they have shown me that business growth is not just about making money.

It is about having the right knowledge, systems, structure, strategy and consistency.

So, today, I simply want to say THANK YOU to these women for being such a FORCE.
And also let the 3 of you know that I love you 🥰.

If you are an entrepreneur and you genuinely want to improve your business, follow people who are already doing what you desire to achieve. Learn. Invest in knowledge. Apply what you learn.

I hope this helps someone today.

And if you enjoy practical food business tips, please follow me here and subscribe to my YouTube channel, Virtue Ottoh.

I share content about food, food business, marketing, pricing and building a successful food brand.

I'm rooting for your success.
Go and build the business of your dreams.

Virtue Ottoh🍎

#chiomaifeanyieze
#nellyagbogu
#augustankanu
#virtueottoh
#businesstips

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 5

Virtue Ottoh

3 WOMEN in BUSINESS Who Are Changing the Way I Think About Business

These women are not just making money. They are building systems, structures, brands and businesses worth studying.

I introduce to you 3 women who constantly challenge my thinking and inspire me to become better at business.

They are doing incredible numbers in their businesses, and what amazes me even more is the structure, processes and wisdom behind their results.

Honestly, these women should be studied as a course in the university!

Let me start with Ma Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze .

I bought about five or more of her classes, trainings and courses, I also follow her teachings on Facebook and I can confidently say that when it comes to marketing and doing big numbers, she is the GOAT.

Her teachings are simple, practical and easy to understand, yet the results are profound.
She operates with a level of wisdom that is difficult to explain. A lot of what I know today about marketing, showing up consistently and putting yourself and your business out there came from learning from her.

If you are serious about business, please follow her. And if you have the opportunity to take her courses, invest in yourself and learn.

Next is Ma Nelly Agbogu

I joined the very first cohort of her Marketing and Structure School, and honestly, calling it a school almost feels like an understatement.
It was an MBA in practical business!

Over 40 sessions covering different aspects of business, and the icing on the cake was bringing in different industry experts and giants to share from their wealth of experience.

Nelly also runs a cassava biscuit processing company and is doing incredibly well.
If you want to learn about distribution, business structure, systems and how to build a business that can actually function beyond you, Nelly is someone you should be watching.

Her Marketing and Structure School is available, kindly enroll.
You can thank me later.

Then next is Ma Augusta Nkanu
I actually heard about her through Ma Chioma Ifeanyi Eze.

She was also invited to speak at Nelly Agbogu's Marketing and Structure School, and for the first time, I heard her say that she was running about 29 adverts DAILY.

I was like… WHAAAAAT?!

You may even wonder why her adverts seem to follow you everywhere. You see them on social media, and before you know it, they have entered your dreams😁. Those adverts remind me of Temu adverts, it's everywhere you go.

But beyond the adverts, what really caught my attention is the system behind the numbers.
Her business reportedly fulfills about 500 or more orders daily, and somehow, she still manages to maintain her steeze.

How does she do it?
That's exactly the kind of knowledge entrepreneurs need to learn.

She has a training coming up, so if you want to understand more about advertising, sales and scaling, please look out for it and enroll.

These three women have impacted my life in ways I cannot fully explain.

Through their content, their trainings and, most importantly, the businesses they are building, they have shown me that business growth is not just about making money.

It is about having the right knowledge, systems, structure, strategy and consistency.

So, today, I simply want to say THANK YOU to these women for being such a FORCE.
And also let the 3 of you know that I love you 🥰.

If you are an entrepreneur and you genuinely want to improve your business, follow people who are already doing what you desire to achieve. Learn. Invest in knowledge. Apply what you learn.

I hope this helps someone today.

And if you enjoy practical food business tips, please follow me here and subscribe to my YouTube channel, Virtue Ottoh.

I share content about food, food business, marketing, pricing and building a successful food brand.

I'm rooting for your success.
Go and build the business of your dreams.

Virtue Ottoh🍎

#chiomaifeanyieze
#nellyagbogu
#augustankanu
#virtueottoh
#businesstips

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 3

Virtue Ottoh

INTEGRITY: THE FOUNDATION OF A FOOD BUSINESS PEOPLE CAN TRUST

Is your honey really original?

I hear this question quite often from customers.

And honestly, I understand why they ask.
The honey market has so many stories around adulteration and poor-quality products that customers have learned to be cautious.

Whenever someone asks me this question, it reminds me of one important principle I teach food business owners and we uphold at Veeclassic Foods Limited

Integrity is not just about what you say about your product. It is about what you consistently do when nobody is watching.

If I tell you our honey is original, then our processes, sourcing, handling, packaging and quality must support that claim.

Integrity in food business means refusing to adulterate your products to make more profit.
It means giving customers exactly what you promised.

It means using safe and appropriate ingredients.

It means being truthful about your product, even when the truth may cost you a sale.

It means admitting when you make a mistake and correcting it instead of covering it up.

And most importantly, it means understanding that your customer is trusting you with their money and, in the food business, their health.

So how do you maintain integrity as a food business owner?

1. Be truthful about your products.
Don't make claims you cannot substantiate.

2. Don't compromise quality for profit.
Cutting corners may increase your margin
today but destroy your reputation tomorrow.

3. Have proper processes.
Your business should not depend solely on your personal honesty. Put systems in place for sourcing, production, quality control, storage and packaging.

4. Keep your promises.
If you say 1kg, give 1kg. If you say fresh, make sure it is fresh. If you promise a delivery date, do your best to keep it.

5. Choose integrity even when nobody will know.
That is where true integrity is tested.

As a food business coach, one of the things I want food entrepreneurs to understand is this:
You are not just selling food. You are selling trust.

And trust takes years to build but only one dishonest decision to destroy.

So when a customer asks me, “Is your honey original?”

Our goal is not just to say, “Yes.”
Our goal is to have a business, a process and a product that can confidently support that answer.
Build a profitable business, but never build it at the expense of your integrity.

I'm rooting for your success.

Virtue Ottoh 🍎
Food Business Coach
CEO Veeclassic Foods

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 6