Oni Yewande is the founder and chief executive officer of Wande Fashions, a cobbling company that produces all kinds of footwear for both males, and females, either children or adults.
Yewande, an undergraduate at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) was inspired to establish her business in 2021 owing to her passion and love for leather products and fashion.
“What inspired me into the shoe-making business is passion. I love fashion a lot and good shoes,” she said.
“I was also inspired to venture into shoe making the day I ran into two ladies on the pedestrian bridge of Ikeja- Along whose shoes got my attention the most,” she explained.
“Loved the designs on their shoes and was fascinated with it and this further promoted me to learn the art of shoe making and establish my business,” she added.
The young entrepreneur took up a year of training in shoe-making to enhance her skills. Yewande said her initial start-up capital was N25,000, which she got from her savings. She has leveraged social media platforms to grow her business.
“I started with the sum of N25,000, I was working from home, making use of my social media – displaying my designs on my WhatsApp platform,” she explained.
According to her, the business which started from taking orders from family and friends has expanded to eight people, and is still thriving.
“My family members and friends were my first clients and since then the business has grown. So due to the increase in demand, I couldn’t work at home anymore. After a few months, I got an office at Egbe –Ejigbo Road, Oke-Afa to expand production,” she said.
“Currently I have two employees and six student apprentices,” she noted.
She said that passion, determination and quality are basically her leading edge between her competitors.
“Our quality is our pride. We believe in giving a top-notch quality will make our clients come back and place more orders.”
She cited finance as one of the major business challenges, especially in the face of surging inflation.
When asked what the biggest challenge of the business, she stated that funding still remains the greatest.
“Our major challenge is funding, we have low funding, and that’s slowing down our expansion plans,” she said.
However, she said the company can deal with this challenge by saving part of its revenue, while investing for expansion to boost sales.
On the organisation’s expansion plans, she said, “One of our expansion plans is getting a bigger office space, whereby we have our production and showroom.”
In navigating the murky business terrain prevalent in the country, Yewande disclosed that the firm creatively produces a variety of footwear for different classes of clients.
“We all know inflation reduces the purchasing power. However, what we’re doing is “creative production.”
“We produce varieties, and various segments for our clients to choose based on their purchasing power, hence, we have products of N30,000, N25,000, N20,000, N15,000, and N10,000, among others. We are sure there’s something for every class,” she explained.
In evaluating the country’s shoe making landscape, she said that there are lots of opportunities in the shoe production business in Nigeria.
Yewande advised upcoming entrepreneurs to ensure having a business plan, noting that it is the road map to attaining goals for a successful business.
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