What do you do when your job pays the bills but not quite enough? If you’re Eki, you don’t complain, you open a side business. By day and night, she’s the receptionist holding down a hotel front desk in Benin City. Outside of that, she’s a perfume vendor quietly building something of her own.
We caught up with Eki to talk about 24-hour shifts, selling between check-ins, and what it really means to hustle from the inside out.
*Names have been changed for anonymity.*
Take me to your first day on that front desk. What did you think this job was going to be and what did you actually find out it was?
I knew the job would be stressful. What I did not expect was the colleagues. Very funny people who are not respectful and cannot follow simple instructions. And then the customers too, very rude. That part caught me off guard.
Describe a 24-hour shift like I’ve never done one. What actually happens to your body, your mood, your mind?
It depends on my mood honestly. Some days I wake up energetic and ready. Some days I don’t even want to come in because the pay, if we are being honest, is not worth the stress. In the morning I’m mostly fine, in the afternoon I just go with the flow, but by night I’m completely exhausted. You’re just counting down at that point.
There’s always a moment somewhere in the middle of the night where something shifts in you. What does that feel like?
That’s when the customers disturb you the most. They want to order food at 2am. Who orders food at 2am? Do you eat at that time in your own house? It’s exhausting. You’re already running on nothing and then someone wants a full meal in the middle of the night.
When did you first realize your salary alone wasn’t going to be enough?
I never really relied on my salary to begin with. When I finished school, the family members that used to send me money stopped because I had suddenly become a big girl. After my first salary, by the second week the money was already finished. That was the moment I knew I had to build something of my own.
How did the perfumes start? Not the business plan, the actual first day.
A friend of mine sells perfume oils. She was having issues with her shop at Ekosodin and needed help moving her stock. She reached out to me to help her sell and market them. People started reaching out and when I saw how lucrative it was I thought, this is not a bad idea at all. That’s how it started.
What does it feel like to be selling something that’s yours while sitting at a desk that belongs to someone else?
I never see it that way. I actually learn a lot from this job. My boss has a very good marketing strategy and I pay attention to how he runs things. I take notes. When I go fully into the perfume business I’ll apply some of what I’ve learned here. The job is teaching me without even knowing it.
Has anyone at the hotel ever bought from you? What was that like?
Yes and it feels good. But I have to be very discreet because my boss is not aware. The conversation has never been had and I don’t know how he would react. So I keep it quiet and careful.
When you’re genuinely running on nothing, what keeps you from stopping one of the two?
I will never give up on my personal business. Never. But the 24-hour job, that I stay for the money. My benefactors are not sending money anymore. If I quit before the perfume business is stable I’ll be in serious trouble. So I stay until I don’t have to anymore.
What’s the most frustrating assumption people make about your jobs?
There’s a stereotype that perfume vendors and receptionists are all prostitutes. Someone will ask for your number and you think they’re a prospective customer. They’re not. They want you to come over. It happens with both jobs and it’s exhausting to deal with on top of everything else.
If the perfume business took off fully tomorrow, what would you do with the front desk job?
I would not quit immediately. There’s nothing like too much money. But as time goes on and the income from the perfume business becomes consistent and stable, I’ll leave to focus on it fully. I’m not running away from anything, I’m just building towards something better.
Eki is not waiting to be rescued. She is learning from every room she sits in, selling between shifts, and building something quietly while the world assumes she is just answering phones. In Benin City, that is what the real hustle looks like, not loud, not glamorous, just consistent.
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