Image generated by leonardo ai
It's been 3 months since i was a graduate and it seemed like nothing was moving.
I graduated from Nnamdi Azikiwe University from the department of Agriculture economics and extension. I remembered my Dad's voice five years earlier encouraging me to take the admission as he mentioned few prominent politicians in Nigeria who studied the same course.
I must confess i was a little encouraged. Not because i had a future in politics but because i believed everyone would at some point eat and Agriculture could never be extinct.
The truth was that a big portion of my dream centered around Fashion. I got a lot of compliment the first day i wore a suit. I just didn't pay much attention to my appearance but people always complimented it anyways.
Imagine receiving a prophecy from a stranger because of the way you dressed. Crazy right?
It's been three months since i graduated and my fashion business wasn't moving. Not even a single client. I posted some good designs with good Ad copies but not even a question was asked about my rates.
It was so frustrating because i had friends who were earning. Some weren't even online on social media because they were working. Which then made social media annoying to me too. But i had to be online because i was still optimistic though getting discouraged.
This situation made me admire my parents. How did they do it? They trained 4 kids from creche to post graduate level in this country.
I called my elder brother who had started life after school before me and he said "capital is the last thing you need before you scale through."
That sounded like he didn't want to help me at first. Till i got a meeting with one of the biggest entrepreneurs in my church. He wanted to get me a PA job because he heard i was a good fellow.
When i got to his office. He started a mentorship session with me. After an hour sitting with him my business brand name was born "NOCABEN BRAND"
What my elder brother said earlier started making sense. I won't say getting the business name attracted customers but it gave me a public image. Especially when people call me by my brand name.
Getting clients to actually want to patronize my business became the next huddle. At least getting a brand name made people chat me up to ask about my rates. Though they weren't patronizing but it gave me hope that one would stop and buy.
My elder brother gave me the next advise. "Bro, you are not making good use of the full abilities of facebook"
I really didn't like Facebook. Infact i gave out my account. But after that advice, i started posting my works and the first client came.
I could remember that sunday morning i woke up to a chat on my Whatsapp page.
Three people chatted me up that they wanted to make clothes and it totalled 12. I was going to make 12 clothes in one week.
'Capital is the last thing you need in business' that statement meant alot now because i needed capital to secure this job. I couldn't believe i was living the dream.
It was amazing having someone who had crossed where i was and was willing to send the elevator down to bring me up.
My brother advised me to read alot of financial books and i did and i must confess it really opened me up to a lot of possibilities.
Image of my work
