In The Category of One

Something remarkable happened half way through 2015 for African women entrepreneurs. One of our own, Tara Fela-Durotoye and her business, House of Tara, became the subject of a Stanford Business School case study, with distribution also through the Harvard Business Publishing. Yes, not just Stanford, but Harvard, too

Credited with opening Nigeria’s first make-up studio, launching west Africa’s first make-up school, and creating a full make-up product line entirely dedicated to African women, House of Tara demonstrates the art of the possible when passion meets business and when business forms a continuum into purpose. For you see, as has been written in this column before, for a vast majority of women entrepreneurs, they come into business out of passion.

African women entrepreneurs glee with pride not merely for the fact that House of Tara made it to a Stanford Business School case study; but we also glee because in reading Tara’s story, our own hopes and aspirations are once more awakened.

We also glee because from a little known SME some twenty years ago, today House of Tara proves that a SME run by a woman, an African woman, in Africa, with all the infrastructural challenges that our economies are affected by, can make it through to the other side and make it through to the other side very successfully. It doesn’t matter that they laughed at you and told you that there is no future for an SME. It doesn’t matter that they told you that your business cannot grow to become a national business. It doesn’t matter that they told you to pull your socks up and join the ranks of your ‘mates’ in corporate jobs in Lagos, Dakar or Accra. It really starts and ends with you. What are your business convictions and what do you want to do with your business?

In following that passion, first must come a strong strategy and a road map; second comes the execution strategy. In between there will be grief, anxiety and stress, but whoever said that the road to greatness was going to be paved with gold? And even if it was, wouldn’t you have stopped at first mile for a little rest, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest?

What always surprises me when I meet and engage with women entrepreneurs is the reticence of their vision and the reserve of their ambition, for more often than not, many of them do not perceive the merit or significance of their business idea to clients and society at large. It is just a hobby. It pays the bills – and we stop there.

But you see what Tara proves is that in going the extra mile, in pursuing passion and turning it into a business, in seeing the possible extent (value proposition) of your business idea to society and in deliberately strategising on the ‘how to’ with the requisite support and mindsets, the sky is the limit. And I say that purposefully.

Tara says that one of the things that she enjoyed about make-up was making people feel and look good. In making up brides, friends and family, she remarked that she realised that these women wanted to feel good and look good all the time, not just on special occasions. They wanted to purchase the products and learn how to recreate the looks that she had given them. Therein came the opportunity to turn a hobby, a passion into an enterprise.

I always find myself reminding women entrepreneurs that whatever they do, they are in the business of bringing joy. Far fetched? Well, let me explain.

Strictly speaking, Tara is in the business of bringing joy. Bringing joy to those who use her products. Her products present a positive externality to its end-users. What she has carefully executed is a strategy to couch joy (in make-up products), nurture it, learn from it, differentiate it, expand it, distinguish how it is presented, sell it in a manner that is expansive yet personal, and even take it outside of Nigeria to another African country – Kenya to be precise – and the list goes on. In business language that translates into strategy, products, systems and processes, customer service, pricing distribution channels etc.

There are many places/businesses that I escape to when I need joy and respite. That lovely cafe serving brewed coffee and home made cakes (not forgetting their welcoming staff). That resort with breathtaking views that I can escape to for some calm and inspiration- believe me, if being in these environments didn’t bring me some comfort and joy I certainly would not patronize them.

So, ladies, remember that you are in the business of bringing joy, and remember that many look to your business as a little way of easing day to day tensions. Carpe diem. Seize the day, ladies. Lead extraordinary lives!