"Sabi Writers is a writing solution for entrepreneurs, businesses, corporate organisations, leaders, CEOs, celebrities, and professionals who want to tell their story through writing but they don’t have the time, or the skill to do the writing. That is where we come in. We take the burden of writing off you, saving you time, money and stress."
Q1:Tell us about your yourself:
On October 1st 2014, I relocated to Lagos from Enugu, after suffering a devastating business failure that left me frustrated, depressed, sick, flat broke, and suicidal. Faced with life’s harsh realities, I refused to stay down. Rather, I picked myself back up and from the debris of my failure, built one of Africa’s fastest-growing companies. I am the Founder/CEO of Sabi Writers, an award-winning writing solution company. A company we built with zero funding and from my small bedroom in Lagos to currently occupying a massive, 13-bedroom twin apartment and serving clients across Africa.
Through sheer innovation, street-smarts, resilience, diligence, courage, and luck, I am unlocking new opportunities in the writing space for young talents in Africa. Our mission in Sabi Writers is to democratise the African story and give every African an opportunity to share their story with the world.
I have a 10-year plan to create at least 1000 jobs for young Africans. I have done 4 years already with about 40 employees; so technically, I have about 960 more to go and little time to waste. I lead a formidable team of professional writers, editors, proofreaders, designers, researchers, illustrators, transcribers, and so on—providing end-to-end, top-notch writing solutions to individuals and organisations across Africa and beyond.
I am a highly skilled sales closer, negotiator, storyteller, strategic thinker, networker and business developer, with a keen eye for opportunities, results, and impact. I founded Sabi Writers School, a premier writing school in Africa and sit on the Advisory Boards of two companies. I am currently undergoing an Executive Programme for CEOs with the prestigious Lagos Business School (LBS). I am a startup investor in other emerging brands like BookSpider, Musk.ng, and Sisi Manager. I also serve as a Faculty Member of a pan-African business learning community for African business executives in the diaspora.
I thrive in moments of challenges, build bridges with people of diverse cultures and beliefs, and I equally know how to find and groom young talents to excel. In 2019, I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the largest Sales Convention in East Africa that was held in Kampala, Uganda. I am an author of four books—The Voices, The Gossip, Crack Squad, and Deep!—where I share hands-on strategies and tools for business, team building, sales, and personal growth. When I am not busy running my businesses or leading my team, I love to teach and listen to country music. I am married and blessed with a daughter.
Sabi Writers is a writing solution for entrepreneurs, businesses, corporate organisations, leaders, CEOs, celebrities, and professionals who want to tell their story through writing but they don’t have the time, or the skill to do the writing. That is where we come in. We take the burden of writing off you, saving you time, money and stress.
Q2:What does your company do?:
Sabi Writers is a writing solution for entrepreneurs, businesses, corporate organisations, leaders, CEOs, celebrities, and professionals who want to tell their story through writing but they don’t have the time, or the skill to do the writing. That is where we come in. We take the burden of writing off you, saving you time, money and stress.
Q3: What inspired you to start your business?:
I’ve been very fascinated and passionate about entrepreneurship and job creation growing up. So starting a business was an avenue for me to make a difference and create jobs for young people. I also wanted to live my full self, expressing that which I know is in alignment with my innate ability and identity. I love creating ideas and building stuff, so, Sabi Writers was only a product of my desire to create jobs and make a difference in Africa.
Q4: How do you define your business model; what differentiates your products or Services from others?:
Sabi Writers is a writing solution for entrepreneurs, businesses, corporate organisations, leaders, CEOs, celebrities, and professionals who want to tell their story through writing but they don’t have the time, or the skill to do the writing. That is where we come in. We take the burden of writing off you, saving you time, money and stress.
Q5: Starting a business is not easy. What struggles did you experience in the infant years of your company and how did you overcome it?:
One of the major challenges we faced was finding the right talents and being able to inspire and educate them to build with you for the long haul. We are the pioneers in our industry, nobody was doing exactly what we were doing at the scale we were doing it. We simply came into the industry with a unique model to writing. So, for me it was finding the right people who believed in the vision; people who were willing to stay and build with me.
That was the major challenge we had to battle with as a young business in Africa. To overcome some of the challenges we faced, we simply kept on building, showing traction, celebrating our small wins along the way, growing our leaders internally and helping them rise in their career with us.
Q6: What do you know today that you wish you would have known when you first got started?:
One of the things I wished I had known was, not being too emotional with the disappointments that come with building a team and running a business in Africa. But then, at the end of the day, the beauty of building a business is in those disappointments. Without them, I won’t learn and without learning I won’t grow. I think if I have to do this over again, I would be more patient with myself to learn, make some mistakes, and grow.
Q7: What are your 3 priorities right now:
My first priority is building quality leaders and that is finding the right leaders and empowering them to rise to the top.
The second is, growing our clientele base, not just in Nigeria but further across Africa. We intend to set up operations in other African countries.
The third is deepening our culture, systems, and structures so that things can run smoothly and better without me and we can continue to unlock new opportunities for everyone in our organisation
Q8: What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?:
We want to create at least one thousand jobs for young talents in Africa and also expand to at least three African countries in the next five years.
Q9: Advice to other entrepreneurs or to your younger self?:
My advice to young entrepreneurs is that they should listen to the market, build, reiterate, and at the end of the day, not fail to enjoy the journey along the way.
I recall my varsity days when for a class in advertising and communication, the university did something remarkable: they hired a retired Creative Director, who was a seasoned Copy Writer, from the "Mad Men" era, when Copy Writers lived up there next to the "football gods". He shared a story, to illustrate the power of story-telling: a Creative Agency was brought in, to help out a car rental company, which was ranked number 2 in the world, their brief was to find a positive in that story.
What followed was an epic "trending" TV ad campaign, themed "we TRY harder". Along these lines: "why is it that we try harder to please you, to wash your car 3 times over, to clear your car on time, much faster...because we are number 2 (hence, we try harder to get you to like us)" The results? The number 1 winner lost so many customers in that process, the number 2 company became number 1 in the process.
The speciality work that Chinonso Ogbogu and the team are doing is remarkable, I equate them to the mining experts of the biography space, there has to be a story, an authentic story in there. Someone's humble beginnings, they may have overlooked, someone's victory against odds, or a logic defying win they took as "ordinary". Theirs is to find it, tell it authentically and amplify it for the world to hear and appreciate it. We are all "staying tuned" as the Sabi Writers team continues on their epic journey.
I once attended a TED talk where the speaker discussed the power of storytelling for both personal brands and for business. As the legend goes: a group of sales people were given simple item to sell, after many sales attempts, they could not find buyers that were willing to pay the required price. They got back, regrouped and were asked to come up with a sentimental story behind the simple items they have been trying to sell. The stories were so personal and compelling that they not only sold-out the items: the prices increased 10 times.
That is what story-telling does for brands and businesses. The value of story-telling, and the role it plays: helps to build a thriving personal brand. Stories: shape perceptions and enable people to learn about the heart of the visionary, not just the product at hand. Every brand, every individual should be intentional with their story and take storytelling seriously.
I commend Chinonso Ogbogu and his team at Sabi Writers for the incredible work they do, leveraging story-telling an age old science (and art), to bring brands to life, and to amplify the mazing qualities in the leaders around us. Sabi Writers's role towards creating impact cannot be under-estimated. I look forward to seeing them spread their wings beyond Nigeria.
Jo-Ann A. Hamilton Educator, Web3, Crypto & Blockchain Enthusiast , Founder- Rare Birds
There is no denying the importance of storytelling in business. Helping entrepreneurs, businesses, corporate organisations, leaders, CEOs, celebrities, and professionals who tell their story through writing is no small feat. Sabi writers is proving that stories build memories which impact numbers. As the African continent takes its place in the global discourse it is important for the aforementioned to be represented well and to create a connection with the global audience which is both meaningful and impactful.
Precious Kalu Author, Digital Marketing Expert & avid Data Science Student
I love the idea of creating solutions for businesses and individuals who don't have time to create or write stories because storytelling is an excellent way to sell or inform an audience. Also, the idea of creating job opportunities for young people. To me me, every innovation should have a solution to a problem which Sabi Writers has provided. Africans need opportunities like this to grow, learn and unleash their unlimited power within. I highly recommend Sabi Writers and I wish them well.
Connect with Chinonso Ogbogu
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