Wande Fashion: The Success Story Of Oni Yewande Footwear With 25,000

Wande Fashions, a cobbling firm that makes a wide variety of footwear for men and women, children and adults, was founded and is led by Oni Yewande.

Yewande, a National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) undergraduate, was motivated to start her own business in 2021 by her love and enthusiasm for fashion and leather goods.

She said “My passion is what drew me to the shoe industry. I’m really into fashion and nice shoes,” she remarked. “The day I saw two ladies on the Ikeja pedestrian bridge—whose shoes caught my eye the most—inspired me to try my hand at making shoes as well,” the woman added.

“I was captivated by the patterns on their shoes and was further inspired to learn the craft of shoemaking and launch my own company,” she continued. To improve her talents, the young entrepreneur enrolled in a year-long shoe-making course. Yewande stated that she used N25,000 of her savings as her initial start-up money. She has expanded her business with the use of social media channels.

“I began with N25,000, working from home and utilizing social media to showcase my designs on my WhatsApp platform,” she said. She claims that the company, which began by receiving orders from friends and family, has grown to employ eight people and is still doing well.

“My initial customers were members of my family and friends, and the firm has expanded since then. I was unable to continue working from home because of the increase in demand. I got an office at Egbe-Ejigbo Road, Oke-Afa, after a few months, so I could increase output,”

the woman remarked.

“I have six student apprentices and two employees right now,” she said.
She claimed that her main advantages over her rivals are her enthusiasm, tenacity, and quality. “We take pleasure in our quality. We think that providing excellent quality will encourage our customers to return and place additional orders. One of the main corporate issues, according to her, is financing, particularly considering the rising rate of inflation.

She said that money is still the largest obstacle facing the company when asked what it faces.  “We have low funding, which is slowing down our expansion plans,” she stated. “Our major challenge is funding.” She did, however, add that the business may overcome this obstacle by setting aside a portion of its earnings and making investments in growth to increase sales. “Getting a bigger office space, whereby we have our production and showroom,” she stated in reference to the organization’s intentions for growth.

In navigating the complicated business landscape that exists in the nation, Yewande revealed that the company makes a range of footwear creatively for various client groups. “Everyone is aware that inflation lowers purchasing power. But what we’re engaged in is “creative production.” In order to give our customers the flexibility to select products according to their budget, we offer a range of prices, including N30,000, N25,000, N20,000, N15,000, and N10,000. Every class will definitely find something to enjoy, she said.

She stated that there are numerous prospects in the Nigerian shoe production industry while assessing the state of the industry. As the roadmap for achieving objectives for a successful firm, Yewande counselled aspiring entrepreneurs to make sure they had a business plan.