Hello everyone, it’s Mercy Omoregie on BeInspiredShow. So today I need you to meet someone really special, you need to see how she turned a thousand naira start up capital into a six figure net worth business, in just a few months, selling cloths.
Meet Marian Adeolu on BeInspiredShow
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Let’s know more about you and what you do exactly?
Thank you very much. My name is Marian Adeolu, I’m an entrepreneur and also the founder of an initiative called Inspire Generation Network. Which is about bringing leaders together from different works of life, business, politics and all to network. The initiative is about creating a community of leaders. Also breeding the next generation leaders on the true character of leadership and how leaders should behave.
That is one of the things I do. And of course, I’m also an entrepreneur, and I enjoy being an entrepreneur.
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Tell us about your business, how you turned your one thousand start up capital into something really big?
I started last year when I just graduated from the University. Being at home was not really my thing, I wanted to get busy, get something doing. I actually wanted to get into production, cassava production, packaging and all. But after writing down my business proposal, I discovered I needed a very reasonable amount of money to startup.
So, I sat down one day, and was talking to myself, because overtime, I have being able to build an entrepreneurial mindset. Time is money. Anything you do, just be conscious of it. So, I sat down and said, ok, fine I don’t have this huge amount of money to start up a production company, which is Cassava farming, I needed money to buy equipment, buy or rent land and all of that. That has been my desire. So I told myself, I can do some other things apart from this business.
So I sat down one day and I looked at my environment, what can I give to this people around me and in return get paid for it? That was how I started.
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Why did you choose clothing?
I decided to go into clothing because, this is something I can easily get with as little as a thousand naira. Actually I didn’t start with complete clothing. It will amaze you to know I started with pantings. Ladies pants. The reason was, I had a lot of female friends around me then. I just graduated, I still had a lot of friends around. And I discovered these are one of the things we don’t go to the market to get easily. But we like having them. I discovered I will be solving a problem here and maybe will be able to get money from it. I started by going to the market, precisely Ring road, I tell you now, I get my goods directly from Lagos.
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Did you have any fear of rejection while starting?
There was no form of fear for me because I knew that these were product you could get very easily. With N250, you could buy one. So, there was no kind of fear whether or not I will get customers. Amazingly I got a lot of patronage. Some of my friends got a dozen from me, and that goes for three thousand naira. I hardly even get someone that wants to buy one or two. Some six, twelve. So there was no kind of fear, because it was kind of an easy money to give out.
Secondly, I have this ability to persuade you. I have this marketing skills. “You will like it” you know, talking to them, I make them feel this is the best you can get.
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Where is your store at?
Ohh, thank you very much for this.. It will amaze you to know that I do online, I don’t own a physical shop. My store is strictly online. A friend of mine once said; “we no longer go online, we live online.” At a point I wanted to get a shop, but after a few advice, I decided to continue online… My online sore is mpair.online.store
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What’s your vision for your store in four, five years from now?
Being an entrepreneur, like I said before, I have a vision of opening a production company. So, this clothing line is going to be the mother of my business. How do I mean? The business is going to be something I will always look back to when I’m there in the future, that I actually started from here. The business will serve as an inspiration to me. So in two three years time my plan is to run a production company. A cassava farm, cultivating, processing and packaging. It is actually through this clothing line I have been able to see that vision coming through. Even though I have not started, in two, three years on the line, I am seeing the reality. So this clothing line will always be the mother business, something I will always look up to for inspiration.
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What’s one big thing you need right now that could give you a push up in your business?
I believe what I need right now is more of collaboration, partnership and more patronage online. I am glad with BeInspiredShow because I believe it is raising a platform for me already, by creating awareness for my brand, because that is what I need right now. And I am truly grateful.
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How would you advice aspiring entrepreneurs out there?
Ok, if you want to go into business and you don’t have the money, it’s so ok. It’s ok. I was once like that. My advice for you is just start from where you are. You actually don’t need money to start a business, what you need is the idea,
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Lol, maybe that’s correct, but don’t you think money is really very important?