An Interview With The CEO of Cheapest Boutique, Omobolanle Adenle

 

We recently caught up with Omobolanle Adenle the CEO of Cheapest Boutique, the only Nigerian based Fashion store that empowers small and medium scale entrepreneurs across Africa. Her tenacity and strategies for success has caught the interest of several persons and tabloids. She shared some insight during her interview with us. 

Tell us about yourself.

 Omobolanle Adenle is my name, I'm a Business Consultant, Content Creator and a Fashion entrepreneur, I'm the founder of Cheapest Boutique which is the only Nigerian based Fashion store that empowers small and medium scale entrepreneurs across Africa kick start and grow

their own profitable business.

Can you describe/outline your typical day?

My typical day is always a busy one as an entrepreneur who works almost 24/7 with no specific closing hours. 

As soon as I wake up as early as 3am and do my morning devotion, meditation and draw a plan for my day, I resume work immediately and I'm either online attending to my clients online, in the market zone transacting business with market people offline, transacting business with corporate firms offline, or offline in my two physical stores running Business. And my free moment are dedicated to reading, learning new skills and developing myself. 

How has being an entrepreneur affected your life?

Being an entrepreneur has affected my life positively to spot opportunities around and always think of a way to create solutions to problems of humanities. Being an entrepreneur has made me a Job provider instead of a job seeker and I'm ever thinking of how to empower others kick-start and grow their own profitable business.

Entrepreneurship has deprived me of having time for frivolities as I have to keep engaging in activities to grow and scale my business for global impact, profit and influence.

What motivates you?

One of the many things that motivates me is my deep hatred for lack, poverty and joblessness in Africa and I'm ever committed to breaking that shackles and bringing others along which was what inspired me to start my weekly podcast Bola Business Clinic to empower and teach people how to start, grow and scale their own business with little or absolutely no start-up capital.

How do you generate new ideas?

Generating ideas comes in different ways and one of the ways is looking at established successful businesses and learning from their business models to generate a unique idea to scale my own business.

Another way I generate ideas is from reading and learning from greater minds across the globe.

And ideas flows in my time of meditation and also when I'm interacting with people.

What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?

Fear has been eliminated in my thinking system, I only have challenges and each time they show up, I seek wisdom and apply understanding to handle it and surpass all the challenges of life that I face per time.

What are your ideals?

I believe in the grace of God bearing upon the effort of human to make all the difference in business, career and all aspect of human life. 

I believe in hard-work, smart-work and I hate mediocrity.

How do you define success?

Success is setting a goal and the ability to consistently crush your set goals. Success seems to be a reward for diligence, hard-work and smart-work.

Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur? 

There is no formula to success in life but there are patterns set down from people that have walked the path we aspire to attain that we can follow, which include diligence with whatever our hands find to per time, the ability to be innovative and device new ways to scale our businesses per time and more. What works for me might not work for the other person but there's always someone that has built something similar to whatever you are trying to build because there's absolutely nothing new under heaven and it takes wisdom to seat down and learn the pattern engaged by the other people that have succeeded in that field, what to subtract, what to add, who to partner with per time, the location to thrive in such Business.

What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?

My favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur is the freedom it gives to pursue your core goals in life beyond just the monetary gain, the freedom it gives to try out different business models and know what works and what doesn't work and the freedom it gives to develop yourself and engage your brain and hands to always think solution.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

My most satisfying moment in business is when my clients are satisfied by my product and Services and refer others to patronize me.

I'm also glad whenever I'm being recognized in my field and celebrated for my efforts on blogs, Tv , Radio Shows and on National Newspaper like Nigerian Tribune, Guardian Newspaper and This Day Magazine that I've been featured in the past and I look forward to more.

How did the idea for your business come about?

The idea for my business came when I was an undergraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University and I needed a side hustle to start generating an income as a student but I found no structured system that was empowering small and medium scale entrepreneurs in Africa to kick-start and grow their own profitable business. After I was able to successfully build Cheapest Boutique to cater for basic retail fashion needs of students, I started thinking of how to help my fellow students kick-start and grow their own profitable business and I instantly created the wholesale medium, making fashion items available at the most affordable resellable factory rate in wholesales for resellers and teaching them how to sell their products on my page on IG @cheapestboutique1. The goal of Cheapest Boutique is to empower small and medium scale entrepreneurs across Africa kick-start and grow their own business starting with little start up capital.

What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur?

My focus and drive has never been Entrepreneurship, it has always been being entrepreneurial in my thinking system whether I choose to work in a corporate organization or run my own business. I am value driven, a critical thinker, very innovative and a problem solver which is what people pay me for regardless of whether I'm the founder of my business or decide to work with another individual or company.

My driving force is basically about finding a problem that I'm uniquely placed to solve per time and solving them on a global scale and getting paid for my product and services.

How did you come up with the name for your company?

The name Cheapest Boutique was the only name that captured my goal of making fashion items available at the most affordable prices for my target customers which are more of low income earners when I came up with the name. When the goal became bigger to make fashion items available at the most affordable resellable factory rate for resellers in wholesales, the name still captures the goal and now that I've involved other items beyond fashion items, people are used to the name already, hence the name Cheapest Boutique remains intact.

How did you raise funding for your venture?

 Building a successful Customer base is serious work for every business owners and it takes years of consistently delivering the right product and services to your customer to keep them as a client who also refers others to buy from you.

How do you build a successful customer base?

The best way to reach the global world with your products and services is placing it on a platform of global relevance which is online. Digital marketing has been most effective and as much as I sell more online, I sell offline as well in my physical stores and I go to strategic location where my target customers are to sell my product out. Digital Marketing is the most effective and the more money you can invest in running advert online, the more the income you record.

What piece of advice would you give to college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs?

With the scarcity of 'good' jobs and unemployment on the rise, starting a business has become the new normal for many graduates like us and entrepreneurship has become one of the most sustainable ways to solve Africa's unemployment problem. 

My advice is for graduates to be entrepreneurial in your thinking whether you want to work in a corporation or run your own business. Add value to yourself, learn new skills of the new economy that you can always translate to cash regardless of your certificate. Skills will stand you out among your peers because the global market is demand of skillful people who have embraced innovation and continuous improvement and the world will now and pay you for your skillset. 

Personally I'm into digital marketing, I'm a content creator for brands, I do graphic design, video editing and engage so many soft skills I keep learning to generate an income daily and if you want to be an enterprise you must be very skillful in many things.

Last but not least, start with whatever you have, don't wait till you have huge amount of money before you kick-start your own business, start small, scale up and grow big.

Weyinmi Grace

Correspondent

FimTvBlog