Talent and hard work are more fashionable than character. It’s well known that if someone has both in good measure – with a little luck – success is sure to follow. But when the dice do not fall in your favour, it’s character that counts.

A period of unemployment is a setback that seriously tests your character. Confidence, a quality that rightly or wrongly has a huge impact on our success, can take a heavy knock. Financial risks become more pronounced as your savings dwindle. It’s easy to see why people would want to play it safe.

Yet not everyone does. For some people, redundancy or even long-term unemployment can be the crucible out of which they forge a new career or even build a business. MT recently spoke to three entrepreneurs who started their businesses after losing their spot on the slippery pole.

Here’s how they did it.

"STORY 1"

Faye Savory, Bear Hugs

I took a job as a speech therapist on the Isle of Lewis in 2012, straight out of university. I used to make jewellery to sell on Etsy, so I suppose I’ve always been a little that way inclined, but I never thought I’d make a full-time business out of it. I had my career, and that’ s what I was going to do.

Within six months I noticed a decline in my health, but nobody could tell me what was wrong with me. I struggled to walk, to wash, dress and feed myself. Within the year, I had to resign and move back to Sheffield, where I found out I had Lyme disease.

With a little bit of treatment, I started to get some strength back. I realised I had maybe an hour or two a week that I could do something. Unfortunately, jobs don’t exist for those one or two hours here or there when you’re feeling up to it.

One day, I had a package through the post from a friend. It was tough day and it completely turned it around. That kind of stuck with me, and I had the very loose idea of starting a business around sending boxes of nice things to people through the post, but it wasn’t a plan for a business.

Then my mum gave me a ring and said she’d picked up this leaflet about the Prince’s Trust enterprise programme, which helps young people start their business. I started in January 2015. They helped me with some market research, and gave me a grant to buy in materials for some prototype boxes, which I sold on Etsy.

"STORY 2"

Kill Unemployment before it ruins you!..CEOs of Nubian Diamonds Agency

Students and graduates have been advised to discover their inner talents in order to escape the dragnet of unemployment in the Nigerian economy, instead of waiting for government created jobs.

This advice was given by the joint CEOs of Nubian Diamonds Agency Oyelami Adesina and Olawale Aina, both 400 levels students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, studying Physics and Animal Production & Health respectively.

For them, waiting for the government is not a viable option for anyone who intends to be successful in life.

"Youths should start looking inward and study themselves to find their talents and abilities.

"Get a skill, don't wait for anybody! learn something new, something the next person doesn't know and try to build a brand and business for yourself," 23-year-old Adesina said.

"We've looked for a way to be self-employed, so the youths and students can do it too, just find your self.

"Be a dancer, singer,hair stylist and still make good money and name for your self,," Aina added.

Stating that "it is very possible to be a student and an entrepreneur" at the same adding, Aina warned that starting is not always easy, especially if academics is combined.

"Being a student and an entrepreneur at the same time is a very difficult task that needs God's grace and dedication for both to go together because you are faced with school, where you have to be at class everyday and also read for exam and the business aspect that required travelling all the time in order to strike deals," he said.

For Adesina, the key to success is finding a balance between academic and obligations.

"It hasn't been easy,but we give priority to one at a time.

"We know when its time to Write notes, attend Lectures and read as well and also when its time to travel to a location for a shoot or to organise a show or an event" Adesina said.

It has been a successful journey for the young CEOs who started out as lone wolves in the quiet city of Ogbomoso with capital sourced from personal savings and family.

"It was by God's grace,from our parents support and our personal money,that we could get funds to start up the business," Aina said.

Two years on, their Nubian Diamonds brand become one of the biggest modeling agencies in Oyo state with over 35 models.

Adesina, like his partner is proud of the progress.

"Our brand is so dear to us because we sacrifice a lot to make sure what ever we do comes out successful," he said.

In August, Nubian Diamonds Agency organized a highly successful Fashion show, the Nubian Runway and Fashion Show(N.R.F.S), in Obomosho, Oyo State.

NFRS hosted fashion designers, models, make-up artists, fashion dealers, fashion accessories designers and exhibitors to showcase their services and products.

The duo advised parents to support their students.

"STORY 3"


Farida Gibbs, Gibbs Hybrid Workforce Solutions

We were brought up in a very disciplined and strict environment. I wasn’t allowed to go out with friends, I grew up with my three younger siblings. From the age of 13, I would wake up at 4.30am to prepare the papers for my father’s newsagents. As soon as I came back from school, I’d take over from him so he could have a break, and help him shut down at 7.30pm and do all the takings. I enjoyed it more than school, selling, chatting to customers, filling up the crisp boxes.

My parents divorced when I was 16, and I stepped into my father’s shoes and looked after my mum. I’d finish college, then go to work at a call centre until 10 or 11pm, while also helping to raise my brothers and sisters. I went to university to please my parents, but when I graduated I realised I wasn’t earning enough and had this huge student debt. My sister, who happened to be in recruitment, suggested getting into sales to help pay it off, so I did.

I worked for tech recruitment companies, but found myself becoming very discontent. It was all about the commission, not how the customer was feeling. I found myself going back to when I was in the newsagents, being my own boss and creating ideas. If I had my own company, I’d think, this is what I would do. I even started writing a business plan in the background, in case one day it came to fruition, but I didn’t have the cash to do it.