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Ayo Alonge, [email protected]
Having carefully considered establishing a name for herself in the business, Alero Martins is, today, the founder of Moms and Daughters, a start-up into fashion designing.
For her, despite how promising the business of fashion is, the challenges are enormous, ranging from poor power supply to difficulty in local sourcing of fabrics which has appeared disturbing.
She spoke to Daily Sun on the risks and prospects of the business, while also calling on government at all levels to ameliorate the challenges faced by small businesses by granting soft loans to entrepreneurs.
Background
I had always known I would go the entrepreneurial path. I just had to pick which area appealed to me the most. I tried make-up training, during my first year long break in school, but I still wasn’t getting the satisfaction I was aching for. Unfortunately, there was an ASUU strike that lasted longer than five months. I had to pick up fashion training during that period to keep myself busy, instead of playing around and blaming the government.
Before I started Moms and Daughters, I went to four fashion schools to get proper training and acquire a mastery of my craft. Before I decided to start Moms and Daughters, I did a survey of the fashion industry, found a gap I felt needed filling and concentrated on making beautiful dresses for little girls. While I can’t rule out competition, I can only concentrate on the values that led to the emergence of the business and continue giving my customers absolute value for their money. Moms and Daughters is a luxury clothing brand for women and children . The brand has styled celebrities in the country and in the diaspora with modern bespoke styling put together from well sourced fabrics and materials curated by us.
Challenges
We have found discomfort in areas like electricity. It’s very hard to operate a business like fashion designing where you need electricity round the clock. The costs of fuelling and maintenance of generator is on the high side. Also, the Nigerian fabric/accessory market still needs more work. As a Nigerian designer, I am at a disadvantage in terms of sourcing premium fabrics and trimmings.
Most have to be shipped into the country before you can access them. The few stores around that come close are overpriced because this aspect of the market has not been saturated yet.
In order to get a job done and satisfy clients, we have to pay through our nose to source materials. On the whole, my mind has been wired to always expect challenges while hoping for the best. The fact is m, at the point of crisis, learning points are there to be assimilated because there will surely be high and low points in the business.
Business prospect
The fashion industry is quite big and the great thing about it is that you can choose to go into any aspect like men’s clothing, female, children, corporate, casual or whatever you can create . The constant thing it requires is that you remain creative. There is also the assessory/trimmings market which I mentioned earlier. It is a juicy aspect of the trade. A lot of people want extra details to their attires and outfits. These extras do not come cheap at all as there are not a lot of marketers that can afford to bring them into the country. Apart from using these trimmings for clothing, they also go for decorative purposes too. The demand is stable but the supply is on the high side.
Marketing
Whatever is good does not come cheap in Nigeria. Let us say affording my label is not on the high when you take a look at the quality effort that goes into it. There is a saying that the amount of money determines the portion of medicine. Beautiful clothes are not cheap. Cheap clothes are not beautiful.
However, in the game of high standards, Moms and Daughters is still the cheapest. Considering the love of Nigerians for foreign designs we have you been able to grow a customer base.All the dresses produced at Moms and Daughters are international standard.
The few produced have spoken volumes for the brand. The referrals have been massive. Even Nigerians in the diaspora that have access to foreign designs hitch-free are still the greatest customers the brand has and we know that the face of couture in Nigeria is evidently changing. The made in Nigeria clothes are on another level and we look forward to styling more celebrities in the future.
Expansion
We are a growing business and having branches across the states is an Idea that we have ruminated over and still considering seriously. The financial capital needed to start a proper fashion business in Nigeria is quite high. The only hurdle to achieving this is getting funding. As with all startups, the best way to go about it is to start small. Grow and groom the business to become bigger. Even when the loans come, it is advisable to use only 60 percent of your startup capital to actually start up. You would need the rest to help your business with the running cost for the first three months, worse case scenario, till the business can stand on its own.
Intervention
For a sustainable business platform, if the government can provide uninterrupted electricity for its citizens like is the case in advanced countries, things would be very easy. Secondly, they should make available easy access to loans with which we can purchase necessary equipment. This will give us an enabling environment that will help the business thrive. We will be able to save cost, expand and employ more staff. Not only does the employer benefits, the government does too. We pay taxes and all kinds of fees for space, purchases and what have you. So, it is a circle that goes round.
Business objectives
Once a year, I run skill acquisition programmes for free for fashion enthusiasts who really can’t afford the training fee. The participants are chosen based on background check to actually back their story. Our aim is to have the capacity to keep up with this so that we can have more independent individuals out there.
Managing risks
When you become too lax and contented with where you are, the only thing you will find in the middle of the road are dead Armadillos because they move slow and get run over by fast moving cars. In business, there are always people and brands that will go the extra miles to oust you. Deceitful staffers can also be damaging to the business because they can undo all your efforts without you realising it until it’s late. Your clients are king and it is very important to treat them as such by meeting and surpassing their expectations. It is dangerous to not put them first because the referrals from them oils the wheel and keeps the business floating.
