Interview: How Ololade Olayeni is Building a Business Empire with Social Media
Social media is taking the place of the business/e-commerce websites we used to know. Customers have begun to make orders on social media, and entrepreneurs are making thousand of sales daily with just their social media profiles.
In this interview series, we’re featuring 20 entrepreneurs who have turned social media into a business hub, and are make tons of sales on a daily basis.
Ololade Olayeni is one of the growing number of Nigerians taking advantage of the opportunity social media offers. She runs her shoe business, Upheels on social media. In this interview, she revealed how she uses the platform to run her business and how effective it has been at helping her make sales.
Tell us a little about yourself
My name is Ifeoluwa Ololade Olayeni , I’m 26 years old, I’m a native of Ogun State. I’m a graduate of computer science from Houdegbe North American University. Benin Republic.
Tell us about Upheels and the inspiration behind it
The inspiration behind upheels came from my love for shoes and also from the fact that I always find it very difficult getting shoes I liked in Benin Republic while I was schooling there, so I said to myself why not just start selling shoes and that was it.
Why did you choose to sell your products through Instagram, as against opening an ecommerce website?
I started selling on Instagram because I found out most people find it more easier to view your page and shop on IG compared to going through website and also because it is more affordable to sell on IG compared to having a website and it’s quite easy to communicate with customers.
How effective has this been?
I must say it has been very effective and encouraging and its been challenging also. Encouraging because it has really improved sales and challenging because some people still don’t feel safe buying online because of the fear of been scammed.
What other social media platforms do you use?
Asides from Instagram, I use other social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp and BBM.
Tell us how the ordering and delivery process goes with social media as your online store.
To Order from Upheels_, customers send pictures and confirm price, then they pay to confirm order. Thereafter, we deliver the items they ordered. Customers are charge separately for delivery.
What are the challenges you’ve faced using social media to run your business?
Like I said earlier, lack of trust from prospective customers have been a big challenge, quite a large number of people won’t want to shop online because of the fear of been scammed and fear of not getting exactly what they ordered.
What do you consider to be the gains and challenges of being an entrepreneur?
I will say the gains of been an entrepreneur are steady income, opportunity to make people’s life easier, gain invaluable experience, you become more accountable and confident. While the challenges are lack of capital, lack of information, marketing strategies, cash flow management and foreign exchange.
Share a word of advice for young Africans thinking of venturing into the world of entrepreneurship.
My advice for young entrepreneurs is that, you need to challenge yourself, do what you care about, take risk, take action, be consistent and trust the process. I believe in this saying – SLOWLY BUT SURELY.
