We had an exclusive interview with Omotayo Bello, who is the CEO of T.Y Bells fashion playground, a home of creativity and beauty centered around creating explicit fashion apparel for both men and women.

Omotayo Bello spoke at length about the struggles of starting a business in Nigeria and we have put together a few snippets just for you.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question: What are the challenges that you usually face doing business in Nigeria?

Answer: As a business owner in Nigeria, finance is a primary problem/challenge faced. It is no more news that there is no balance in the distribution of wealth across Nigeria. So “yes” capital can be a major challenge but of course, we can’t let finance stop us from actualizing our dreams.

Listening to the opinions of other people can also be a major challenge. You must have come up with lots of business ideas that you had to drop because someone told you it was impossible to achieve. People can discourage you and even stop your dreams before you think about actualizing them. But the balance to this is that constructive criticism can help you to correct some business errors or better still prevent them from happening. Constructive criticism helps you look at things from a different point of view and look into various ways that you can improve on your business idea.

The trick is to be close enough to listen to people’s opinions and far enough to ensure that nothing stops you.

Question: can you tell us about some of the responsibilities that come with running a business?

Answer: People think starting a business is all about talent but then, they get started and the talent is no longer enough. Two major responsibilities that you must take on as an entrepreneur are managing and marketing. You will definitely have people working for you but the truth is, no one can manage and market your business like you.

Question: Business concept! How do you come up with your business ideas?

Answer: A wise man once said that as much as success is not accidental, a very large part of it is accidental. There are a lot of things we actually plan for and we find out that we never end up doing them. Fashion has been a part of me since childhood, it was just like an everyday thing for me.

Someone liked my fashion sense and asked me about how I came about my designs and I explained my struggle with tailors. She inspired me to become a fashion designer. Her name is YEA! She became my boss and taught me.

Question: How do you manage your team?

Answer: I learnt people management from my religion. I picked from the story of Jesus and his disciples. You need to understand that you’re bringing different people with different attitudes. Creating a team can be very difficult but understanding that they all have individual strengths and weaknesses is key and you need to be ready to lead and manage them.

Question: If you could do anything differently in your business now, what would it be?

Answer: My target audience

I actually started with my target audience in mind but I had to switch because of my current location. It affected me for a while and I plan to re-target my main audience as soon as possible.

Question: Did you ever fail at any point in your business?

Answer: Failure is normal! The very essence of success is the presence of failure. The major point is to keep doing it; don’t stop. Consistency is key! A lot of ideas will come and won’t work but don’t stop!

Question: What are the things you learnt from your failures?

Answer: I learned that failure doesn’t mean pure failure. It just means there is another way to go about things. My failures have made me dog-headed and dogmatic. If I don’t fail at all, maybe I won’t be dog-headed, it made me tough.

Question: What is your advice to business owners?

Answer: There is this popular slogan “just do it” by nike. Stop giving yourself a million reasons to not start and just start. The good, bad and the failures will all lead to success, everything will eventually come together.

Oh, and there’s more! Join us this Sunday by 4pm for a full session with Omotayo Bello on telegram.

Click https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGSIQM4UNFXfBG5bgUucLLInVzpJgOEEcfrKPBoKmMKV-CFg/viewform to register.


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