Meet Onifade Oluwaseye, an accounting graduate from Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, who has skillfully woven his passion for shoemaking into a remarkable entrepreneurial journey.
By Eberechi Obinagwam
Meet Onifade Oluwaseye, an accounting graduate from Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, who has skillfully woven his passion for shoemaking into a remarkable entrepreneurial journey.
Onifade Oluwaseye’s interest in shoemaking dates back to his secondary school days. Then, he would visit his cousin who was already training to be a shoemaker. It was from his cousin that the spark for shoemaking was ignited.
During his National Youth Service year in 2019-2020, he learned the craft. Today, Onifade is the CEO of AU Footwear in Lagos, where he makes fine designs for men and women.
How it started
Onifade started his shoemaking business fully in 2021 at Ibadan after completing his training in shoe-making in 2020 during his National Youth Services. Before this time, he already had firsthand knowledge of shoe making while in secondary school from his cousin whom he often visited in Ogun State who was then an apprentice learning how to make shoes. That first-hand knowledge which he gained from his cousin propelled him to learn further.
“I started my business fully in 2021 after learning shoemaking during my NYSC service year in 2019/2020 in Ibadan, but before going to learn it fully, I had little knowledge of it back then in my secondary school days, so it was easy to catch up with the learning process.”I got the knowledge from my cousin who was learning how to make shoes in Ogun State. So anytime I went to visit him at the shop where he was learning, I would be watching what they were doing. It was from there that my passion for shoe making grew and I decided to learn it fully during my NYSC program in 2019 to 2020,” Onifade narrated to TheNiche in an interview.
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Sourcing capital
Unlike some entrepreneurs who face financial challenges starting up their businesses, Onifade didn’t have to go through such rigorous challenges. He worked for clients based on purchase orders.
“I didn’t have many challenges starting up because I worked based on orders, a system where my customers pay in advance. The advanced payment they pay to me is usually enough for me to source materials to use for my work,” he said.
Penetrating the market
In the highly competitive shoe-making industry, AU Footwear’s CEO revealed that it took him considerable time to gain traction. He noted that as an online business owner, one major challenge he faced initially was building trust.
“Penetrating the market took me some time because it was not easy to convince my customers when I started, especially online. I run an online business where I showcase my finished works across various platforms to gain traction and attract customers. So, gaining trust was difficult when I started because you know every marketplace has the issue of trust to deal with. They are not seeing you, it’s just a click representing a handshake. But over time, I started gaining customers’ trust with good feedback,” he said.
Onifade further told our reporter that when he started posting his products online, he struggled to gain customers’ trust. To convince them, he would refer them to his business page, which was at the time was being built.
“I was still building my page then. So, to me I wouldn’t want anything to spoil it. I wanted to protect it, so I would always refer them to my page to go and check for themselves and I would tell them, ‘That’s the page I am building and if I am not real it will affect it and I won’t want that. With that, some will go on to give me work to do while some will still doubt it. But I never gave up, I kept on,” he said.
Recalling an encounter that gave him business confidence and made him smile, he said: “My first order was through Facebook in 2021. I posted some of my samples because, while I was learning, I did make sandals, and palm slippers for myself and my family. I posted the products on my Facebook page and a customer from Ondo State saw them and liked them. He was like, ah, I don’t trust online people, but I managed to convince him and referred him to my page which I was building then. I asked him to go and check it out because it’s new and I don’t want a bad tag on my page. When he checked my page, he was convinced and asked me to go ahead with it.”
He added: “My Ondo customer was a business man, so he told me that he had a business partner in Ibadan and asked me to deliver his palm slippers when I was done with it to him. When I was through with the palm slippers and brought them to his business partner in Ibadan where he asked me to drop it, his business partner saw it and loved what I made for him, and he called my Ondo State customer who is his business partner in my presence and told him that the palm slippers were nice and he paid immediately. That was how I started getting referrals. The feedback I got then motivated me to continue with my business.”
On how he managed bad business outcomes, Onifade gave an example. “I used a material that a vendor convinced me to buy. After using it to make shoes for my customer, after a month or two, the customer sent the palm to me that it was breaking. I pleaded with him and explained to him that it was from the new material I used. I forwarded the feedback to the vendor and the vendor acknowledged that it’s bad. That particular experience would have wrecked my business if I hadn’t rectified it on time.”
Breakthrough
Onifade said he got his breakthrough after a series of trials and errors. “My breakthrough came when I first put out my products for sale after a series of trial and error. The feedback turned out to become very nice.”
Challenges in business
The CEO of AU Footwears said the economic instability is a major challenge to him, ”The price of materials keep going high every day. It’s not stable and it’s affecting my business. Customers just feel we want to overcharge, but no. It’s the instability in the prices of materials.”
Japa
Onifade said he still loves Nigeria and prefers establishing himself here to travelling abroad and start struggling afresh.
“Everybody wishes to look for greener pastures which I think is the major reason for some people to japa but in Nigeria, as an entrepreneur, there are a lot of opportunities which can be turned to wealth. I love Nigeria and I would like to establish my business here than travelling to start struggling afresh,” he said