The Nigerian Woman Who Sold Two Necklaces And Never Looked Back


Abimbola Balogun: "If I look back, I would say I am humbled"

Six years ago Nigeria's Abimbola Balogun - affectionately called Bimbo - was a frustrated graduate, trained in petroleum marketing but coming to the sad realisation that it was going to be very difficult for her to get a job in the oil industry.

So at 29 she went out on a bead stringing course. She says that she just wanted something that kept her busy until "the real thing came" and she found a proper job.

"Now the beading has overshadowed the real thing," Mrs Balogun told the BBC series African Dream. And she exploded with laughter. She has, indeed, many reasons to be happy.

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I knew I had to be different from every other beaded jewellery designer so I went online”

She started her business with an investment of just 400 naira ($2.5, £1.6) which bought her enough beads to make two necklaces.

She sold them for 5,000 naira - more than 1,100% profit - reinvested the money and never looked back.

In a country where there are so many people in the beading business she separated herself from the pack by making high-end products with special gems. And for inspiration she started looking at design websites.

"I knew I had to be different from every other beaded jewellery designer so I went online," she told the BBC Africa's Victor Okhai.

Now Mrs Balogun runs two outlets in Lagos, has a weekly television show about jewellery and trains other beaders. Her company, Bimbeads Concept, is now worth around five million naira and has five employees.

Pride in African colours
Mrs Balogun is aware that in Nigeria, like in many other parts of Africa, women are becoming increasingly proud of their local cultures.

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Abimbola Balogun


Age: 35
Higher National Diploma (HND) of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Nigeria
Started Bimbeads in 2006
Her company has five full time employees
Vice-president of Beaded Jewelry Designers Association of Nigeria
Studied Entrepreneurial Management at the Lagos Business School
Good quality colourful beads - including precious and semi-precious stones - that match their outfit are preferred by many of them to expensive gold or pearls. To a great extent that is probably why her range has had such an appeal.

"My designs are different because they are customised… They are designs that are uniquely and individually crafted," the entrepreneur explained.

She says that she knew very little when she started out but has learnt everything on the job.

She has also continued studying. After starting her business, she got a scholarship from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Woman Initiative to study Entrepreneurial Management at the Lagos Business School.

Mrs Balogun also talks about the importance of networking and of women working together to achieve success.

She speaks at mentoring and motivational events and is a member of a number of organisations, including the Nigeria Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW), a platform of Nigeria Employers' Consultative Association (NECA).

"I started by calling myself a mobile trainer. So I was going from one house to the other, training people and earning some money but when I joined NNEW I was advised to take the bold step to get an outlet which I did," she said.

"Of course, I was scared. I had the fear of failing but the passion kept me going."

High-profile clients
She later moved to a bigger place and opened a second outlet, also in Lagos.


According to Mrs Balogun, her designs are "uniquely and individually crafted"
"My products cut across all classes of people: Lower, medium and the upper upper class," Mrs Balogun said.

According to her, she has some very high-profile clients, including wives of governors and kings, and women in politics.

Mrs Balogun added that her weekly slot in the TV programme Every Woman's World has also helped to increase her clientele.

"That actually was one of the things that made me popular," she explained.

She said that the major problem she has encountered is that in Nigeria "everybody wants to reckon with the successful, nobody wants to give the growing ones a chance. If your name is not there, if you're not one of the first three top designers, then you're nowhere.

"With consistency, passion and hard work I was able to overcome all of that," she said.

Now her dream is to add - like precious beads to a necklace - new outlets to her company and expand across Nigeria and West Africa.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18535002

ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

Good for her.,.,.,,,,,

nyc 1 i am in the buzines nd i can testify dat the buzines is wat doin

nelly4: ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

How did she swindle them? I bliv she had a gun to their head abi?
Smh

@OP. Thats what determination can get u.

Her business is worth 5 million... Hmmmmmmh. Dats not a lot though. Worthy achievement anyways. Kudos and good luck to her.

Its called creating value, she took something worthless and created something valuable...afterall isn't that what creativity is all about. This woman will go places. Afterall someone will make a cheap shoe and write Jimmy Choo on it and ladies will be ready to cough out huge sums to buy that same shoe, its like that because they are paying for craftmanship and uniqueness...not to even talk about the value of the brand. So there's no swindling here, if you think its swindling then I challenge you to buy d so-called 400naira bead and come out with what this woman was able to produce. Let's celebrate hard working nigerian women, its good to hear stories like this when we have a lot of women "sleeping" their way to wealth and snatching other people's husbands. quote author=nelly4]ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway [/quote]

nelly4: ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

Its called creating value, she took something worthless and created something valuable...afterall isn't that what creativity is all about. This woman will go places. Afterall someone will make a cheap shoe and write Jimmy Choo on it and ladies will be ready to cough out huge sums to buy that same shoe, its like that because they are paying for craftmanship and uniqueness...not to even talk about the value of the brand. So there's no swindling here, if you think its swindling then I challenge you to buy d so-called 400naira bead and come out with what this woman was able to produce. Let's celebrate hard working nigerian women, its good to hear stories like this when we have a lot of women "sleeping" their way to wealth and snatching other people's husbands.

Education makes a difference. I am of the opinion that if an educated person sells pepper or orange, he will sell it differently and apply some innovation to it.

Yeah, great Sister Bimbo, I really appreciate yòur courage. She's my neighbour and I think I know some lil'bout her. She's a real success story. Cute one, that's what packaging can do for you. Cheers
@tellwisdom, you think its everyone that attains success that goes through your sister's route of selling their toto. Sister Bim stays @ Obadore along Lasu-Ojo road and she's well known before now k.grow up!

Thumbs up!

nelly4: ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

She is an aggressive trained marketer....

Kockane: Her business is worth 5 million... Hmmmmmmh. Dats not a lot though. Worthy achievement anyways. Kudos and good luck to her.

She maybe worth more dan #5m. Do you want Lagos state tax officials to come knocking @ her door or kidnappers,robbers,Winch in her Papa compound to tripple her effort,etc?

nelly4: ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

Stop hating, the time, effort and craftmanship she put into creating the beads is worth the cost price on the beads.
If she swindled people as you so put it, take that N400 and go buy something similar in the market.

thats naija greed for u,the just start biz today wan see millions tomorrow,because you put air-conditioner for your shop no mean say u go sell something were u produce wit 400naira, 5000naira

nelly4: ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

STFU if you cannot even comprehend simple English. The RAW MATERIALS were worth N400, not the necklace.

[quote author=nelly4]

nelly4: ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

Hahahaha Stick to your salary job my dear. I am beginning to believe not everyone is made for entrepreneurship. Your brain process is not unique ....many people think like you do and many people earn a salary just like you.

@nelly 4,i agreed with swt bimbo, she is not selling d beads but her great ideas, the owner of idea rules the world, get that.

nelly4: ok ...so she made it back then by swindling some rich lady by selling a necklace worth N400 for N5000
the business is even messed up as of today anyway

pls i need some lovely beaded necklaces

antitpiah:
The Nigerian Woman Who Sold Two Necklaces And Never Looked Back


Abimbola Balogun: "If I look back, I would say I am humbled"

Six years ago Nigeria's Abimbola Balogun - affectionately called Bimbo - was a frustrated graduate, trained in petroleum marketing but coming to the sad realisation that it was going to be very difficult for her to get a job in the oil industry.

So at 29 she went out on a bead stringing course. She says that she just wanted something that kept her busy until "the real thing came" and she found a proper job.

"Now the beading has overshadowed the real thing," Mrs Balogun told the BBC series African Dream. And she exploded with laughter. She has, indeed, many reasons to be happy.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

I knew I had to be different from every other beaded jewellery designer so I went online”

She started her business with an investment of just 400 naira ($2.5, £1.6) which bought her enough beads to make two necklaces.

She sold them for 5,000 naira - more than 1,100% profit - reinvested the money and never looked back.

In a country where there are so many people in the beading business she separated herself from the pack by making high-end products with special gems. And for inspiration she started looking at design websites.

"I knew I had to be different from every other beaded jewellery designer so I went online," she told the BBC Africa's Victor Okhai.

Now Mrs Balogun runs two outlets in Lagos, has a weekly television show about jewellery and trains other beaders. Her company, Bimbeads Concept, is now worth around five million naira and has five employees.

Pride in African colours
Mrs Balogun is aware that in Nigeria, like in many other parts of Africa, women are becoming increasingly proud of their local cultures.

Continue reading the main story
Abimbola Balogun


Age: 35
Higher National Diploma (HND) of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Nigeria
Started Bimbeads in 2006
Her company has five full time employees
Vice-president of Beaded Jewelry Designers Association of Nigeria
Studied Entrepreneurial Management at the Lagos Business School
Good quality colourful beads - including precious and semi-precious stones - that match their outfit are preferred by many of them to expensive gold or pearls. To a great extent that is probably why her range has had such an appeal.

"My designs are different because they are customised… They are designs that are uniquely and individually crafted," the entrepreneur explained.

She says that she knew very little when she started out but has learnt everything on the job.

She has also continued studying. After starting her business, she got a scholarship from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Woman Initiative to study Entrepreneurial Management at the Lagos Business School.

Mrs Balogun also talks about the importance of networking and of women working together to achieve success.

She speaks at mentoring and motivational events and is a member of a number of organisations, including the Nigeria Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW), a platform of Nigeria Employers' Consultative Association (NECA).

"I started by calling myself a mobile trainer. So I was going from one house to the other, training people and earning some money but when I joined NNEW I was advised to take the bold step to get an outlet which I did," she said.

"Of course, I was scared. I had the fear of failing but the passion kept me going."

High-profile clients
She later moved to a bigger place and opened a second outlet, also in Lagos.


According to Mrs Balogun, her designs are "uniquely and individually crafted"
"My products cut across all classes of people: Lower, medium and the upper upper class," Mrs Balogun said.

According to her, she has some very high-profile clients, including wives of governors and kings, and women in politics.

Mrs Balogun added that her weekly slot in the TV programme Every Woman's World has also helped to increase her clientele.

"That actually was one of the things that made me popular," she explained.

She said that the major problem she has encountered is that in Nigeria "everybody wants to reckon with the successful, nobody wants to give the growing ones a chance. If your name is not there, if you're not one of the first three top designers, then you're nowhere.

"With consistency, passion and hard work I was able to overcome all of that," she said.

Now her dream is to add - like precious beads to a necklace - new outlets to her company and expand across Nigeria and West Africa.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18535002

she is gifted