A Lawyer Who Transit Into Entrepreneur Space

Morenike George – Taylor is a lawyer turned entrepreneur who is the Founder of Reni Legal Consulting. A full service law firm which operates in Lagos and Abuja. She transited into the entrepreneur space with her first investment in Foodlanders Oniru, a restaurant located in the heart of VI and moved on to make several more investments.

Morenike George Taylor who bares her Mind with YINKA KOLAWOLE spoke on Entrepreneural development and other Business investments.

As at today, Morenike is the Group Managing Director of the Flux Group, Founder of Reni Legal and the Legal Secretary of the Restaurants, Cafes Bars and Clubs Association of Nigeria. She sits on the board of numerous companies and spear heads the operations of two companies in particular in the group: County Support and Taylors Realties.

She has been a high achiever since she was young and bagged several awards at Oxbridge Tutorial College.

She was awarded a partial scholarship to the University of Sheffield and was among the top 15 graduating students in her law class. She graduated top of the line at the Nigerian law school before she worked with the Legal Aid Council and Wemimo Ogunde & Co. SAN before starting her own law firm.

Morenike then moved on to running a restaurant and creating a franchise out of the brand Foodlanders. She invested in a business support company called County Support where she leads a team of professionals located around the world in helping businesses cope with the impact of COVID – 19. She also runs a real estate company called Taylors Realties which specializes in selling luxury properties around the world.

Morenike invested in Taylor’s Realties last year and at the time, they only sold properties in Nigeria. Since she came on board the company has expanded operations to Dubai, the UK, Kenya, South Africa and more. She sells properties worth as much as £5,000,000 in the UK and has launched a program that offers free tickets to Dubai for those who purchase properties in Dubai from Taylor’s Realties.

Hit hard by the lockdown and economic implications of the END SARS protests. The lockdown still didn’t hold Morenike down as she used the time to grow, participating in online LinkdedIn and Harvard Courses. She took business management courses and restaurant management courses and forged a way to help businesses survive the COVID – 19 pandemic and harsh economic realities.

Morenike has worked as a consultant with top brands like Golden Tulip, Washline, Cedar Beaumont Group, Five Continents and several other brands. Her ability to adapt businesses to the current economic Realties and help then thrive and succeed is what gives her an edge in the industry.

Morenike is a mother to two amazing kids and has a passion for helping those who can’t help themselves.

She describes herself and a lover of God and refuses to let the harsh set backs she faced in relationships to stop her from achieving her goals.

Business Spotlight on Morenike George – Taylor of County Support and Taylors Realties

Tell us about You
Included in my biography

What does your business do?
County Support offers business support services and Taylors Realties sells luxury properties all over the world. I founded a law firm called Reni Legal as well but it is now run by Peter Ugwu, a capable lawyer with an impressive track record.

What problems does your company solve?

County Support solves problems for businesses in trouble and offers support services to businesses. We help people set up restaurants and hotels, we help businesses adapt to the unique COVID-19 landscape by proffering creative solutions and supervising the execution. We help small brands grow and medium scale businesses become large scale businesses. Basically, county support is a business builder that operates across several industries by supporting businesses.

Taylors Realties helps clients purchase luxury real estate without hassles. We sell properties all over the world and offer special benefits to our clients such as complimentary tickets abroad and so on.

How do you solve your customers challenge?

Who are your ideal customers?
Our ideal customers are business owners and those who want to start businesses but dont know where to start. For Taylor’s Realties, our ideal customers are people who want to invest in luxury real estate and are looking for a great deal.

How many hours a day do you work on average?
Ha ha, I work all the time, I think I’m always either working or spending time with my children.

Can you describe/outline your typical day?
My typical day involves me spending time with my kids, managing and supervising several social media accounts, reviewing new luxury properties we have for sale on Taylor’s Realties, attending meetings and meeting clients for County Support. I believe that a relationship with Jesus is important so I try to start my day by spending time with Him.

How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
It has given me a more flexible schedule that allows me spend time with my kids. It causes me to have control of my own time but sometimes it can be very demanding. I have had to turn down jobs just because of how demanding they would be.

What motivates you?
I am motivated by God, my kids and myself. I want the best life for them and I know that I would need to work hard to ensure that they have all they need.

How do you generate new ideas?
I love beautiful spaces. I believe I am most creative when I am in a beautiful and comfortable space.

What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
I’ve learnt to overcome fear. Being afraid is like being behind bars, it limits you. I believe in these words ‘there is nothing to fear but fear itself’. Whenever, I find myself becoming afraid, I pray about the issue and then I put my game face on and face it head on.

How do you define success?
Success is being able to support your family, your kids, your parents and having a good relationship with God. When you can make a positive emotional, financial, spiritual and practical impact on your family and community, you are successful.

Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
The only pattern I know is that you never give up. You may not be where you want to be but insofar as you keep trying, you will get there.

What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Being able to plan my time

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
I have two, it would either be the first time I opened Foodlanders Oniru or the day that Taylor’s Realties entered partnerships that allowed it sell properties in Dubai, UK and Kenya.

How did the idea for your business come about?
Someone told me that ‘if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together’. All my ideas have come from discussions with my partners, hours of brainstorming and the grace of God.

What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur?
Wanting a better life for my kids and wanting to fulfill my purpose. I believe that I was born to give my kids a great life and make the world a better place for those around me. This is why County Support focuses on strategic partnerships. I love helping people achieve their goals.

How did you come up with the name for your company?
Brainstorming with my business partners

How do you build a successful customer base?
How do you market your business, and which tactics have been most successful?
What kind of culture exists in your organization, and how did you establish it?
I believe in a culture of respect and kindness. I see too many organisations where higher level officers are abusive and insulting to lower – level officers, this is a big NO – NO. Our organisations Taylors Realties and County Support focus on professionalism, courteousness and kindness. We maintain integrity in all our transactions. This culture was built through trainings, one – on – one discussion with staff and leading by example.

What advice would you give to people who want to become entrepreneurs?
Be sure you’ re ready for a journey full of ups and downs. Decide that failure is not an option and keep trying
If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I love my career, my background in law has given me several advantages, working with Mr. Shina Ibiyemi of the legal aid council, Mr. Wemimo Ogunde SAN gave me all I needed to start my career properly. AH! If I could change one thing, maybe I should have gotten an MBA after law school.

What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?

What entrepreneurial tricks have you discovered to keep you focused and productive in your day-to-day busy schedule?
What key activities would you recommend entrepreneurs to invest their time in?
Reading
Keeping up to date with whats going on around you
Connecting with your staff
Who has been your greatest inspiration?
Jesus
What business-related book has inspired you the most? (or, What is your favorite book?)

If you had a magic stick, which are the three things you would change in the world?

What is the part of your life experience you would alter if you had the chance to?
I have learnt to use everything that happens to my advantage. I try not to ask ‘God why me’ and focus on what I do have and what’s going right for me. If I alter any part of my story, I dont know what impact it would have on the person I am today. As tough as this may be to say, I wouldnt change a thing.

Why did you transit into Entrepreneurial space?

I was in employment for some time at an exceptional law firm, Wemimo Ogunde and Co. but I got pregnant with my second child and couldn’t cope with the demands of employment anymore. At this point, I stopped working and once I noticed I couldn’t remain idle at home, I went into business.

.What is your Capital base?

I would say that the capital base for County Support & Taylor’s Realties would be about N80,000,000.

How did you manage your law firm with the new business.

Wow, this was really a tough one. I had to find a determined and passionate managing Counsel who would be capable of handling all the new briefs we got. I found one in Peter Ugwu who is now managing my law firm.

How would you describe the business space in the country along. side Your Own business ideas.

For County Support, we built a business in COVID – 19 to save other businesses. We started offering hotel and restaurant consulting services to companies and helped them create solutions that helped them not only survive but thrive in COVID.

We helped assemble teams of very passionate individuals with deep and vast experience in the industry to brainstorm and create new streams of income where others had dried up. We increased customer satisfaction and marketing and ensured our the customers of our clients were able to give feedback and that our clients were able to act on it.

For Taylor’s Realties, it was a bit different. Some parts of the real estate market came to a stand still because of the pandemic. We had to start exploring sale and management of properties outside the country.

In summary the business space in Nigeria is something else since the pandemic hit and we have had to adapt to not only survive it but build again after so much was lost in the lockdown.

.what is your business projection in order to facilitate developmental efforts in the area of your business.

Hmmn… well for County Support, I would say that we are working hard to introduce more artificial intelligence and preventive maintenance techniques into the industry.

Since Taylor’s Realties offers its clients complimentary drone shots, professional pictures and staging already, the new focus is on developing sufficient virtual tour technology that would make physical inspections almost unnecessary