Electricity is a principality that has killed many businesses —Tope Olanre -Alade

Tope Olanre-Alade an award winning designer,  a certified fashion educationist and assessor of international repute, who is also the director of studies at Ibile Vogue Academy and the chief wardrobe consultant of Ibile Vogue, shares her story with TAYO GESINDE

 

The journey so far

It has been very rough but I love it all the same. When you are doing what you love, you won’t want to give in easily. Also, the fact that you know that it will be rewarding at the end and that you are doing your own thing will make it worthwhile. Recently, I felt discouraged because business wasn’t doing so well but I just had to encourage myself that I can’t afford to fail, so, I had to buckle up and keep going. As a business person, you need to encourage yourself, nobody will do it for you because everybody needs encouragement. So far so good. I changed location from Shomolu to Magodo and it was as if God had been waiting for us here because despite the fact that I didn’t have a signage, God announced the business, basically through referrals. And that is what I tell entrepreneurs, once you can churn out quality products, the quality product will advertise you and your work will be your billboard. It has been fun.

 

On getting seven awards in 2016 alone

Sometimes when one is labouring, it doesn’t show. I will say last year was my time to shine. I will not say I did so much in 2016 to have earned that volume of awards but I could trace most of them back to what I had done the previous years. I got the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) award as one of the Most Influential Women With Students and Youths in Vocational Training in 2016. When I was contacted, I asked them why they wanted to give me the award because I wanted to be sure I merited it. They reminded me of trainings that I had done for free in some universities that I didn’t even remember again. They said when my name came up, there were lots of people who could identify with the Ibile brand and that was why I got the highest number of votes and won the award. I also won The Most Industrious Fashion Entrepreneur Of The Year from National Union Of Tailors (NUT), Badagry chapter. I was surprised and wondered how I was noticed in Badagry but I later discovered that some people I trained and mentored  at Peter Akinola Foundation stay in Badagry and they were the ones that mentioned my name. So most of the awards could be traced to what I had done in the past. It was like an accumulation of what I had done in the past and not just what I did in 2016. I am thankful to God for all the awards. Things like that encourage one to do more and  better.

 

What distinguishes my brand from others

The name Ibile tells the story of the brand. Ibile is about promoting the afrocultural heritage through wearable arts; anything that has to do with fashion, apparels and accessories. My designs have strong African connotations. For us at Ibile, it is more about a campaign than just selling clothes and that is what we try to do even in our training school, that is why Ibile Academy has been having a stronger voice lately. A lot of people are coming here for training. In teaching them to be fashion entrepreneurs which is our strong value, we help our students to understand that fashion is largely influenced by culture so, you can’t separate your culture from fashion. Some fashion items that are acceptable in this country may not be acceptable in other countries. Even in Nigeria some fashion items that are acceptable in the South West, you can’t try them in the North so you can’t do fashion without considering your cultural heritage. It is very important. Even for companies, their dress code has to do with their companies’ culture. That is what we have been doing consistently for two decades in Ibile Vogue.

 

Challenges faced by entrepreneurs in Nigeria

Basically, funding is a major challenge for entrepreneurs in Nigeria but we have been trying to train upcoming entrepreneurs to take their minds off it. Though it is important, it shouldn’t be a factor that should stop you from pursuing your dream. We found out that it stopped a lot of people from achieving their goals. When you think of that as a problem you will never do anything. Setting the issue of funding aside, there are other issues that having so much money will not solve, you just must work round them and one of them is power. Electricity is a major issue. It has been a principality that a lot of entrepreneurs face. It is also one of the killers of a lot of businesses. If government can give us regular supply of power, you will see how much cheaper our products will be because we will be saving a lot of money spent on fuel. For instance, at Ibile Vogue, we spend between N45,000 and N50,000 on fuel every week. Another challenge is man power; getting good hands.

Most of the time when we hire staff, we have to retrain them and once you train them, they feel they can stand on their own and they run away either to go and open a small shop or work for someone else.That is a lot of loss for some businesses because you keep on retraining people. Availability of fabric is also a challenge. Most of the fabrics and accessories we use are sometimes not easy to get at the market. The market is not reliable and that is not helping us. We can’t compete globally especially those of us that are into ready-to-wear because they don’t struggle and battle with what we battle with. The last one is that the industry is not well organised in terms of segmentation and specialisation of roles. For example, I am a designer/wardrobe consultant to the core but I end up doing dress making sometimes. Some times, I have to draft the patterns, bring the clients, market the dress, I am the debt recovery officer, human resource personnel, accountant. All these things drain you and you can’t be the best you want to be. As a creative mind, you need to be total concentration to be able to bring out the best in you. We are doing a lot of things we should not be doing, there should be fashion illustrators, pattern drafters, joiners and we need production hubs. If we have production hubs, I will create designs that are good and take them there to be mass produced. Our industry is still crawling, not to talk of walking or flying. The little we have been able to do, we are trying. Only the strong and tough can survive this industry.

 

Tips on how to succeed in the fashion industry

If you don’t really love the fashion business, if your motive is to make money, you won’t survive because there will be times you will lose money. It is a profitable business but it is a rough terrain so if you are not ready for the heat, you will have to leave. It is a highly competetive  industry, if you are not creative, you won’t succeed. You need to know the customers’ psychology such that someone who wants to make one dress will end up making five. That is why you need to be well trained. You must have an entrepreneur DNA to survive. Not everybody is wired to be an entrepreneur, that is why if you throw money at a business, you might end up losing your money because it is not just money that the business needs to survive. People need to be well trained and groomed before starting a business. Have mentors who will spur you to success. Surround yourself with people who will encourage you and not those who will criticise creativity out of your head. You need people with constructive criticism.

 

Why I am into training

I have a degree in Education so teaching is not strange to me. Also, I love to teach people. I have also done a lot of trainings and I have a lot of certifications. I am a fashion educationist. I have written three handouts on fashion though I’ve not published any book yet. I am a City and Guild London certified fashion trainer and internal verifier, and a resource person for National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB). I am not only skilled, I am qualified to train and run a school. I am also the Head of Fashion and Creative Art  Department at Peter Akinola Foundation.

 

Combining the home front with my business

I won’t take glory for that. I will give the glory to God, my husband and my two boys. My boys don’t disturb me, things that will not make me have time for my business that I need to give attention to like cooking, they can handle them themselves. I try to make sure I spend quality time with them. I don’t work when I am on holiday or at festive periods. We are always together at festive period and we have made it a culture to spend summer outside the country to avoid distraction. My husband helps me a lot too. I also have good hands, my team, I have a team not staff and they are the best. They all help me and they are very important to my business, career and life so I don’t take them for granted. They are excellent.

 

Most defining moment of my career

It was when I got my City and Guild London certification. It happened the same year I became NABTEB resource person and invigilator. I felt my career was defined. It was a milestone for me. It made me look inward and restrategise. It made me see myself as a role model for some people and it gave me more confidence to chase my vision. Today, I feel very fulfilled though I am not where I want to be yet. I have trained almost five hundred people. I am grateful to God for bringing me this far.

 

Advice to young girls

Women are multitasking queens. Don’t let anybody limit you. You can do more than one thing at a time. Be an enterprising woman. Don’t sit down and be waiting for daddy or boyfriend before you do anything. The era of a woman looking up to a man is gone. In fact, men these days choose their wives strategically. They choose their partners based on what they can bring to the table. With the  recession out there, it is now they really need us as helpmates. No matter how rich your husband is, whatever he gives you multiply it. Women should help women, they should learn to collaborate.They should stop beefing one another rather, we should complement each other. When we do these, we will be able to stand up and say no to men battering women, whether physical or emotional abuse.