Entrepreneur: Chika Russell obtained presents from all 5 dragons in BBC present Dragons’ Den in 2015
Snacks entrepreneur Chika Russell would provide tax breaks to girls who arrange their very own companies if she had been made Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Russell, who in 2015 obtained presents from all 5 dragons in BBC present Dragons’ Den – accepting one from Peter Jones solely to later flip him down – not too long ago secured a multi-million pound funding for her African-inspired ‘boldly-flavoured’ snacks, Chika’s.
She donates a penny from each pack bought to charity World Imaginative and prescient which helps younger ladies in Africa. Russell, 36, talked to Donna Ferguson.
What did your mother and father educate you about cash?
I am of Nigerian descent and my mother and father believed you need to solely spend what you might have. The Nigerian saying is: regulate your coat in keeping with your measurement.
My late father used to run a big Nigerian financial institution. He was financially astute. My mom was a businesswoman. Our household had properties in Nigeria and the UK.
By Nigerian requirements, we had been nicely off. We had drivers, cooks and cleaners. However within the UK, the naira – the foreign money of Nigeria – did not convert nicely. By UK requirements, I am positively not from a rich household. I used to be the youngest of seven youngsters. We made do with what we had and lived inside our means.
Have you ever ever struggled to make ends meet?
No, as a result of I’ve at all times lived inside my means and I’ve at all times labored. I acquired my first part-time job as a hairdresser at my mom’s hair and sweetness salon. I used to be simply 14.
Clients would see my hair and ask me to do theirs. I began quoting ridiculous costs as a result of I did not need to work each weekend. It acquired to the purpose the place I might earn £1,000 for 4 or 5 hours’ work. Usually I’d earn £2,000 a weekend. I had no residing bills and I saved each penny. By the point I used to be 22, I had managed to construct up financial savings of £140,000.
What was the most effective monetary 12 months of your life?
Final 12 months. My enterprise, Chika’s Meals, obtained an funding of £9.8million to broaden it. Consequently I’ve began paying myself a wage for the primary time since I set it up seven years in the past.
Lower than 10 per cent of personal fairness funding goes to feminine entrepreneurs – and fewer than one per cent goes to girls like myself who’re from black, Asian and different ethnic minority backgrounds.
So it is an enormous deal to safe such a major funding. Plus, round 70 per cent of my workforce in Nigeria are feminine, so extra girls in Nigeria may have jobs because of the funding.
The costliest factor you got for enjoyable?
A black Python sky-high boots with six-inch stiletto heels. They price £5,500.
I acquired them two years in the past as a deal with as a result of I would been working so exhausting. I might afford them as a result of I’ve at all times saved. I went from residing with my mother and father to residing with my husband who works in a senior position in monetary providers. So I’ve by no means needed to spend hundreds on hire or something like that.
What’s your greatest cash mistake?
It was a couple of years in the past, I used to be flying to Portugal with my household for my niece’s marriage ceremony. I had this longing for a tuna baguette after we had been within the airport terminal. So I took my household off to go and purchase one.
Everybody determined they needed one thing to eat or drink. Consequently, it took lots longer than it will have carried out to get a single tuna baguette. Eleven of us missed our flight. I then rebooked and paid for everyone’s tickets which is why shopping for that baguette was the largest mistake I ever made. It ended up costing me £3,800.
One of the best cash resolution you might have made?
Giving a penny of each product that we promote to charity World Imaginative and prescient. It helps empower women and girls via schooling. It makes me really feel good as a result of once I promote a product I’m not simply creating wealth for myself, however serving to make the world a greater place.
One little luxurious you deal with your self to?
Macaroons from Harrods. Every prices £3. I often get them in packing containers of 24, one field each six months.
Do you save right into a pension?
No, however now that I’m incomes a wage I’m planning to start out this 12 months.
Deal with: Chika Russell showing on Dragons’ Den along with her African impressed snacks in 2015
Do you personal any property?
I personal three properties in South London which I purchased once I was in my early-20s. I did not get any assist from my mother and father, I used the £140,000 I had saved from my part-time work as a hairdresser.
That was about 15 years in the past, simply earlier than the sub-prime mortgage disaster and the 2008 world monetary meltdown. I solely needed to put down a ten per cent deposit on every property. These days, I do not suppose an individual my age can be allowed to tackle a lot threat.
I purchased a three-bedroom home in Norbury for £249,000, a two-bed flat in Clapham for £229,000 and a four-bed home in Mitcham for £349,000. I nonetheless personal them and benefited from the rental earnings they generated once I wasn’t taking a wage from my enterprise.
I additionally personal three different properties with my husband, one among which is our house. It is an eight-bedroom home in London’s Notting Hill that we purchased six years in the past and moved into three years in the past after renovating it.
It price a number of million kilos and we purchased it outright, after promoting one other property we owned. I believe it is risen in worth by a few million kilos since we purchased it.
Do you make investments instantly within the inventory market?
Sure. I’ve an Isa which is invested in expertise funds and I additionally make investments via Hargreaves Lansdown into numerous alternatives I come throughout.
As well as, I am taken with cryptocurrency. I’ve fairly a big quantity invested. To date I’ve seen a 12 per cent return on the expertise funds I am invested in and a 100 per cent return on my cryptocurrency investments.
For those who had been Chancellor what would you do?
I’d provide tax breaks to feminine entrepreneurs that males couldn’t qualify for. I believe some traders have an unconscious bias in the direction of males whereas others do it on objective. For no matter cause, each non-public traders and enterprise capital companies determine to again male founders extra usually.
I believe the Chancellor ought to stage the taking part in discipline and make it simpler for feminine entrepreneurs to succeed and develop into position fashions for different girls.
What’s your primary monetary precedence?
T0 obtain monetary independence and make a hit of my enterprise. I need to give again to all of the unbelievable individuals who believed in me and put their hard-earned money into my enterprise.