Still on lessons from 2019.
Happiness is not overrated. Joy is power. I’m not talking about putting up a show for Instagram (except if that feeds your joy ) I mean taking deliberate steps to do what makes you happy. I don’t know who sold us the lie that a successful business starts with a happy customer, no it starts with a happy business owner and her happiness is contagious, rubbing off on her customer and her entire ecosystem.

It’s SIMPLE, do what makes you happy. It’s easy to loose your spark as you get busier and your business gets bigger. You take on more, you diversify, you get into survival mode and then you wake up one morning uninspired, not excited about what you do anymore.

Your passion is precious please guard it jealously. Your passion, joy, happiness is where your grace lies. That is where you find limitless energy, your unique selling point, your unfair advantage, your secret sauce.

Doing what makes you happy is your most strategic business move. So in 2020 don’t throw yourself into busy-ness without finding out what happy is. Let your joy guide your work. 

The pressure that comes with the new year, now its a new decade we have to contend with . As an entrepreneur you can’t afford to panic. Panic is bad for business and it’s not great for your creative energy either. As usual we will be inundated with goal setting tips, classes,courses ,programs etc and if you are lucky, all that buzz will last you till March and then the adrenaline wears out and reality kicks in and you are back doing the same old thing and waiting for another year to count down… no that’s not the plan.

So what do you do as an entrepreneur to prepare for 2020? Well let me tell you what I do. I’m not jaded by the new year….I never have been. I however take note of my wins in the year and then try to document what made them work, then I do them again and again until I have a winning formula.

We don’t give our wins enough attention. When you get something right, go on and supersize it, it’s yours ,perfect it , repeat it and own it. Stay present in 2020 . I had several wins in 2019 and I’m going to capitalize on them in 2020 so watch this space. I hope I made sense. By the way I’m back and I have a lot to share.

I don’t know exactly what caused this but in the last 2weeks we have had more first time customers come through than in any other week this year. It’s a welcomed development but I don’t know if it’s the sponsored ads, campaigns, pop ups, newsletters, text messages, insta posts or stories, direct messages and calls, In store events or even re designing our website, or referrals by happy customers,maybe it’s the cumulative effect of consistently doing all these things that caused this but whatever it is we stay grateful.

I don’t believe in luck, I believe in grace though, like luck it can’t be earned but grace is not a fluke….it’s not a respecter of persons and is available to some degree to us all. Grace,like luck can be wasted, if you fail to prepare for your season. You must be expectant even when it makes no sense ….grace is partial to the brave.

See with all the newbies coming through, it would mean nothing if we weren’t prepared for them. If we weren’t able to convert the traffic to money it would be a waste of grace. It takes blind faith to prepare for a peak season, piling up inventory and anticipating demand , putting the word out and hoping they are listening….. it pays off though. Moral of my very long story, be prepared for your best case scenario, don’t be distracted by your present circumstance,it’s nothing but a smoke screen. I hope this helped someone.
#

Entrepreneurship keeps you humble, sensitive, alert and cautious at least it should . Fashion entrepreneurship is the worst ….In the words of heidiklum “one day you are in and the next you are out” so don’t let success make you cocky or overly confident. There is a temptation to ride a seasonal wave of success so high that you forget how you got there, you stop listening to your numbers, the market trend and your customers ever changing behavior.

Success is dangerous for the immature entrepreneur. Anyhoo I’ve had my fair share of temptations, some I have foolishly succumbed to and others I have successfully resisted and that’s what my latest podcast series is about. Click the podcast button on this site to listen.

Here are a few things I have been told on this entrepreneurial journey.

1. Your clothes are ugly

2. ….She is not even fashionable ( told to my friends actually)

3 You are going to regret this ( told to me after leaving banking)

4. Your designs are too simple

5. Ready to wear won’t work

6. You need to attend more parties( kuku kill me)

7. You are successful because people like you not your designs ( insult and compliment rolled into one…how do you respond? Thank you or hell no) 

8. It’s not too late to get a job ( I was already 5 years in)

9. Your designs used to be nice ( the worst… calling me a “has been”)

10. Get somebody else to do your designing

Every single one of these statements hurt and had the power to discourage me. Some were said by people I liked and respected. Thankfully though, there were words of encouragement and affirmation and praise and gratitude and appreciation that have come through. Some by the same people. I focus on that.

I have cried many tears and felt lonely many times on this journey but ( thank God for guts) through all the highs and many lows my greatest asset is being my own biggest fan!!!!! I don’t need your praise or criticism to survive or thrive. I need your patronage though and I will get that as long as I stay true to who I am and share my gift in the most respectable , loving and authentic way I can.

Dear fashion preneur, as I end this series I want to encourage you to stay true, do you, take risks and be your own biggest fan. It ain’t easy but you are sooooo worth it 
#

How well do you know your brand?

Most of us don’t know her nearly well enough. Who she appeals to and why. What she is becoming as she ages, what value she delivers , how she is perceived and who she sits with in the market.

There is a peace and confidence that comes with knowing her, a peace that inspires you to position her right but also encourages you to stay on your lane. You are not showing up at every single exhibition, engaging in price wars to win market share or compromising values to stay in business.

2020 is the year to be more of who you are. Let your brand be unapologetic about who it is and who it’s not. Until you are ready to damn the consequences and be true, you will keep running around in circles and showing up as a diluted version of yourself…..not very impressive.

I talked a little bit about this in on of my recent podcasts. I titled it “10 things you are doing wrong” if I sound harsh and uncompromising it’s because I realize that with creativity comes stubbornness, we are a stubborn lot we creative types. We need to hear stuff over and over before we shift. We also need a slap over the the head sometimes. Anyway click the podcast button on this site to listen.

Human beings are the only species that ignore their intuition. God put that 6th sense in there for a purpose. You have been going round in circles ignoring your gut feeling to make a move that could quite possibly fix everything. A move that could be the beginning of many ups and downs but will end with a victory dance.

If I sound like a “woli” this morning it’s because I’m finally connecting some very confusing dots. Dots that first emerged 4 years ago, dots that didn’t make sense and didn’t even seem to pay off. Risks taken that I considered miscalculated and borderline irresponsible. But now , somehow,it’s coming together…..still fuzzy….but it’s making some kind of sense.

You see, you can read all the books, attend all the seminars and conferences, follow all the gurus and know all the theories if they don’t inspire you to take action, they are all a waste of your time. We know, we build confidence from doing , we achieve from doing, we learn from doing, so do!!!! Do it afraid, do it unsure , do it and fail even but failure is never really a destination for the doer, it’s all part of the dots connecting up and down, back and forth , round and round …… one day it will make sense. Hope this helps someone. #

Be careful how you treat a disgruntled customer, even the unreasonable ones. Be careful how you make them feel even if you feel justified. A bad feeling is difficult to shake off , a bad experience is difficult to forget, a lost customer is near impossible to get back. Some customers are badly behaved, you feel the need to let them go for the sake of your mental well being right? We have all dealt with the customer from Hell but even the most difficult customer must be treated with respect. This is where training comes in.

Please my dear entrepreneur, train your staff to be respectful. Don’t just expect them to do so , you need to be deliberate about this. Next thing is to put policies in place to favor the customer not just to be make things easy for you. Your return policies , shop display, loyalty schemes, and everything else should reflect a brand that is customer centric. This feeds into the culture of your brand and influences how the customer feels in your space and most importantly how she feels when she thinks of your brand.

I consider myself a difficult but fiercely loyal customer. If I buy from you and I am happy with your services or product, you have a customer for life and a self appointed brand ambassador. If I don’t enjoy shopping from you or engaging with you is less than seemless or stressful, I’m not forgiving….. I’m emotional and I won’t be back. I live for great customer service, dependability and respect from a brand. So please think of these things. I just had a bad experience from a store I will not be returning to and I will be back to my favorite store for the same product tomorrow…..we can all do better.
#

SHORT TERM THINKING vs A LONG TERM PERSPECTIVE.

The first one will lead to panic, fear, comparisons, a need for instant gratification and unsustainable success.

Long term thinking is faith based. It instills discipline, you plan, project and strategise against an expected future achievement. This kind of thinking is not rewarded in a hurry, be ready to look and possibly feel ridiculous but when the future comes it will make sense.

Some of my greatest assets, the intangible ones in terms of my brand journey are rewards from some decisions I made at least a decade ago. At the time it was difficult sticking to it but now I am so glad I did.

I have heard people say “ Nigerians don’t like ready to wear, Tomi you will starve o” They were right at the time but I knew that a time would come when they would be wrong if only I could wait out the “starvation” season .

Then they said “ hmmm Tomi your designs are too simple , Lagosians like glam” right again but I was targeting the growing 2% who were like me and now just like I anticipated “simple is the new glam” I have been told other things like “stick to your linen” “your designs are getting too young” “you need to do more regular stuff” “ your prices are too high” “ you need to start taking fabric “.

In my journey towards the picture in my head and as I evolve and reinvent myself and my brand it has been tempting to compromise, to earn a quick buck but I’m glad I stuck to my plan because most of the brand equity I am enjoying now are based on decisions I made years ago. 

Now those values are part of our DNA and difficult to shake off. I’m still making crazy moves under the radar that nobody understands except me and the voices in my head. I’m also still making a few errors and course correcting but I have learnt to be focused on the long term play, it’s all coming together….one day it will make complete sense.

So in-spite of the pressures society places on you, go with your convictions and make moves today that your future self will be thankful for. I hope i made sense today.

My babies are growing up. They are changing and so are the dynamics of our relationship. They need me in a different way now and I need to be sensitive to my new role in their lives if I want to be an effective parent.

Sometimes, admittedly, I miss the babies they used to be and how desperately they needed me for everything. How I had a ready answer for any question they asked and how cute their responses were to some of mine.

Now some tables have turned and I’m the one asking the ridiculous questions as they are the ones bursting out in laughter at how clueless I am in their world. But they need me. They need me more now than they needed me then. My role is different but it’s still the same.

As my business evolves so does my role as it’s creative director. It’s sometimes humbling to accept this. My business also doesn’t need to be mothered the way it used to. My team needs direction not micro managing . If I’ve done things right, my brand also now a teenager should be mature enough to run on its own without my hand holding.

I also must admit that I need help. This phase in both respects is more complicated. There are people who have been down this road before and I can learn from their journeys. Please be sensitive to your role as a CEO. You run the risk off loosing momentum if you let go too soon or hold on to less strategic roles too long. Learn to empower and trust listen, yes listen to your business. Mine seems to have a life of its own and has a lot to say.