‘Poor management skills, not funding, major problem of entreprenuers’

Mrs Atinuke Smith is an award winning Nigerian-based fashion designer and the CEO of Datina Designs, in this interview with ADEWUNMI ADEDAYO, she speaks on how she found herself in the fashion industry, the hardest part of starting a business and how young business designers can build a large customer base in the business part. Excerpts:

When did you first realise you wanted to pursue a career as a designer?

Fashion designing was not on my radar at all, even though my mum was a fashion designer. I read Communication and Language Arts and Religious Studies in the university and I loved the camera and also loved to write. I wanted to pursue print journalism or broadcasting.  But, after my Bachelors Degree and at the point of serving my nation,  I discovered I actually had a flair for creative and artistic stuffs so I chose to explore my creative side through  fashion designing, which took me on the journey of self discovery.

I took the training for a year and I fell in love with it. Afterwards, I decided to pursue it as a career and it has been an interesting journey all through.

Some people believe you have to have a big amount to start fashion business, how true is this?

Not necessarily. I started my business with only one machine and an iron and I gradually grew the capacity of the business. A startup fashion designer basically needs to have a straight sewing machine, a whipping machine and an iron. There are still affordable manual machines that could be purchased at a minimal amount to start off. I know a lot of our startup fashion designers that are still working from home without incurring the monthly expenses of getting a space. The only reason anyone might feel they need to have big funds to start out is if they are looking at starting out with the expensive industrial machines and expensive work place. I would advise all our startup business owners to start small and give themselves time to grow the business. They should start small and allow the business to evolve.  Growth is a gradual process.

How did COVID-19 affect your business and how were you able to pull through?

Sincerely I had a blast during COVID-19. It was a cash cow season for my business. When COVID-19 started and all businesses had to shut down, including my own because I majorly produce unisex  Afrocentric ready to  wear clothing  for different  occasions but there were no special occasions due to the lock down . I had to observe what was happening around me and decide what to do.  So, I pivoted into the manufacturing and production of face masks and PPE’s. The demands were phenomenal.  We couldn’t even meet up with the orders we were getting from different states in Nigeria. We were working back to back and we had a lot of sleepless night just to meet our demands. After that, we partnered with another Nigeria-based company on an international assigned project to produce doctors scrubs to different states in Nigeria. It was huge for us and definitely the biggest project we have done since the inception of my business. It’s been an awesome season for us as a fashion brand and we are still eating the dividend from the beautiful experience. It has moved our brand forward into more visibility and we have launched a new clothing line that has to do with work wears like, medical wears, factory and security uniforms.

Who are your major clients and how do you get your clients?

My business model is divided into two . I service B2B and B2C customers. I have clientele with corporate  organizations that I produce and manufacture clothing pieces for in large quantities, like corporate work wear, schools uniforms, security firms, hospitals, medical wears and factories in need of work wears.  I also have a huge clientele amongst big departmental stores and boutiques who order and store my clothing pieces to resell both locally and internationally. Our B2C business model are for our walk-in customers who bring their fabric for our bespoke tailoring services for special occasions like weddings and bridal parties. Our B2C business model also service our customers across Africa and Europe who order our ready to wear products through our pop up ready to wear stores, social media pages and our E-commerce store.

Seeing that there are many fashion businesses now, what makes Datina Designs unique?

Datina Designs has been in existence for over 28 years, and we are still strong and relevant. We have been able to carve a niche for our brand by focusing on having strong financial, social, and environmental impact in the society. We are constantly evolving and reinventing our brand and reinventing our businesses, while we stay true to our values. We are focused on running a successful business model. We are in the industry for a long haul, with the right skills and for the right reasons.

For young entrepreneurs just starting up, what do you think will help them to build a successful customer base and what key activities would you recommend entrepreneurs to invest their time in?

The creative industry is a highly competitive sector; to attract and retain customers requires intentionality and hard work. Entrepreneurs who intend to improve their customer base must be creative with their advertisement, know where their customers are, their needs, and their motivation. Advertising on the wrong social media platform is a waste of money. They must embrace and engage the power of networking and leverage technology. They must develop the template for top notch customer service, relationship and focus, along with creating great experience.

The important activities to invest their time in include, increasing their knowledge base in the area of acquiring top notch skills and improving their business management skills; exposing themselves to trainings, business coaching and mentoring opportunities to aid their growth plan; networking and collaborating with other business owners.

What would be your advice to young entrepreneurs on finance as regarding the fashion business?

Like I have said, starting small is key. I remember when I started out, I was surrounded by family and friends who encouraged me. I had only one machine when starting out and I can remember clearly one of my friend’s aunty borrowed me one machine like six months after I started. I used this for a while till I was able to save up to buy another machine and I returned the one I was borrowed. From that point on, I kept increasing the capacity of my business. My first work place was also given to me for free for six months before I started paying. When starting out a new business, family and friends are your first call. Startup businesses should not take a loan that can crash the business.

I also think there are lots of grant schemes available for startup businesses. So for a startup business that needs financing, what they need to do is to intentionally position their businesses for opportunities.  They should register their businesses and open a corporate account and make sure they are accountable for their income and expenses. Businesses that are well positioned always attract the needed finances. Most times these small businesses are not managed correctly so they are not investment worthy. They often think funding is their problem, but most time its not funding, its poor business management.  You cannot manage what you can’t measure and nobody would invest in a business without structure.