The founder and Chief Executive Officer of On The Rock with B, Mrs Adebimpe Sanusi, shares with BIODUN BUSARI how her thriving cocktail business is not just about mixing drinks, but transforming the lives and future of young people through the provision of employment, education, and essential skills, empowering them to find fulfilment and purpose in a challenging economy
You transitioned from overseeing customer experiences to starting On The Rock with B in 2018. How did your initial interest in mixology evolve into a successful business?
I was between jobs when OTRwithB started. I didn’t have a typical 9-5. I made a list of things that interested me and wanted to explore, and one of those things was mixology. During my previous role, where I oversaw customer interaction, I realised I always ensured we had an interactive cocktail bar at events. Even when working with other mixologists to bring the vision to life, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. Although I didn’t have the skills at the time, I was drawn to how cocktails were more than just liquids in a cup – they looked and tasted great but also brought people together. At any event, you’ll always see people gathered around the bar, chatting and enjoying themselves, not just grabbing a drink and moving on. Later, I took courses to learn more about mixology before venturing into it. And that’s how OTRwithB started in 2018.
You studied Law at the University of Lagos. What link does this have with mixology?
I’m a lawyer by profession and was called to the Nigerian Bar. I also have experience working in marketing and public relations. Most of my 9-5 experience has been in those fields, although they don’t really correlate with what I do now. The business officially started in 2018, but we didn’t fully launch immediately. We handled some events, but it didn’t become a full-time venture until two years ago.
What additional opportunities does your business offer beyond cocktail services?
OTRwithB is both a business and a social enterprise. While we are a profit-making venture, we are intentional about using those profits to uplift our community and create a lasting impact on the people within it. One key aspect of OTRwithB is how we support at-risk youths, particularly those aged 17 to 25 who are on the verge of dropping out of post-secondary education. When I started the business, I didn’t initially plan for the social enterprise aspect, but it naturally evolved. The first set of employees I hired were at-risk youths, and through my interactions with them, I realised I could make a difference. It wasn’t that I was unaware of the issue, but I became more conscious of the opportunity to help.
We primarily employ staff based on referrals from within our community, many of whom are students from universities and polytechnics. These less-privileged youths often don’t prioritise post-secondary education after leaving secondary school, focusing instead on how to make money and improve their families’ lives.
In my own small way, we help by providing financial support, sustainable income, and flexible work hours. This allows them to fund their education and reduce the financial burden on their parents.
How do you ensure your employees gain essential soft skills alongside their work experience?
My business gives them the necessary skills beyond providing financial support by helping them earn to continue their education. Another thing is that because we work as a team, we help build soft skills needed at the entry level of the workspace.
This includes communication skills. There is always a massive improvement from when they join the team to when they finally graduate from the universities, and leave us to work in other organisations.
They learn leadership skills, teamwork, work ethic, and most importantly problem-solving skills. Those are life skills that are very important and are missing within that sub-category.
How do you address situations where their earnings may not be sufficient to fully fund their academic programmes?
It is not a one-sided arrangement. The fundamental principle is that you work and earn money for your education. We provided loan facilities to some of our staff and stepped in to help them cover costs for various reasons.
What is the rough estimate of the people your company has helped since inception?
A rough estimate of over 100 people have gone through our system.
Your business focuses on people, profit, and the planet. What is the idea behind the concept?
Let me start with the profit. We are an enterprise, and we do not receive external funding, so everything we do comes from the profits we generate by serving cocktails at events. Our business model is structured to ensure we make a profit from our events—that’s the profit-making aspect.
The people aspect focuses on our employees, particularly at-risk youths, which I’ve discussed in detail. We aim to support them in staying in school until they complete their education. The planet aspect addresses sustainability and how our organisation takes responsibility for conserving the environment. Ultimately, we want to leave the world a better place than we found it, both for the people we interact with and for the planet as a whole.
You mentioned sensitising people about the conservation of the environment. How do you go about that?
No. What we do is implement internal policies that guide our organisation. For example, we operate a no-waste bar, meaning we repurpose items to reduce waste. If we’re at an event with leftover greens or fruits, we don’t discard them; instead, we make homemade syrups or dehydrate them for use as garnishes. Additionally, we’ve eliminated the use of plastics, opting for glassware and paper cups, which are more environmentally friendly.
We work with farmers in the North. We get a lot of our products from them and this helps with our supplies in making sure that we have consistent supplies. As we buy from the local farmers, we’re helping the economy.
What are the challenges in this business and how do you address them?
We’re bending over backwards to accommodate our clients and ensure that we deliver flawlessly on all fronts at events.
I think that has helped to sustain us in terms of repeat customers and just general referrals which has kept us in business.
Another challenge is the backend which is very tasking. Sometimes, it is a lot because, in a social enterprise that we run, we have to deal with customers and their needs.
We also deal with the needs of staff, which in this case, is in terms of convincing them to stay in school and get an education.
And sometimes, that in itself constitutes a lot of emotional strain. They have friends that are dropouts and into dirty money-making ventures, and riding fancy cars like Benz.
We have to encourage them to be patient and follow the process as their own Benz will come at the right time.
Sometimes, they have family baggage and we have to find a solution to help them because whatever affects them affects the business. We try as much as possible not to allow them to deviate from the end goal and focus.
Do you get your customers only through referrals?
We get referrals. We also get enquiries from social media. To be honest, social media has been very instrumental in our growth as people see events we have done well. Sometimes, we also get on-the-spot bookings. We may be at a venue, and right there some people would approach us because they like what we do, and from there, they start booking for their upcoming events.
How does the business operate with staff that are also students?
Most of our events are at the weekends. So, they usually don’t stay in their hostels at the weekends. And through this, their mates ask them why they are not available at the weekends and they tell them what they do to help themselves. With this, they get to introduce them to the system and convince us about why they have to do this work. The reality is that some of them have to pay bills from what they earn and support their parents, apart from the school fees.
I can relate because while I was in school too, I did ushering jobs to get money to support my parents with whatever they gave me to make sure I could afford some of the things I needed in school.
