Mary O Idahosa, CEO of style me ventures, a blend of style,beauty and creativity, they are inspired by the fashion trend and ensure that they satisfy all their clients.
She has been in the hair business for over 20 years with various awards and successes to her credit.
Won the Nigerian hairstylist competition in 2008, participated in the kanekalon hair stylist competition, noble hair stylist competition, Amigos Hair stylist competition, and in 2014 took 1st position in the LABCAH hairstylist competition.
Since then, she has been training, counseling and inspiring up and coming hairstylist who cannot be numbered.
Currently she produced style me wig and she sells locally and internationally, they have clients from across the globe who are always satisfied with their services. She is also a guru in bridal hair styling.
In this interview with Oyinlola Sale, Mary O Idahosa tells us how she managed to build a sustainable hair brand.
Now, what is the story behind the Creation of Style-Me Ventures?
Style me ventures was birthed to satisfy the beauty needs of clients coupled with our passion for making women beautiful and training interested student.
Compare and Contrast the Hair Industry in Nigeria, what has changed?
The hair industry in Nigeria has changed drastically due to the change in demand affected by the COVID 19 Virus, before COVID people can spend hours in salon making their hair but all this has changed. Now people tend to spend fewer hours because they can get what they want in a wig.
Social media technology has also made it easy for exploration, you can buy and sell hair from any part of the world, different styles can be advertised with less cost and effective communication and online payment has also emerge in the industry and that has positively added to the industry.
What does it take to set up a hair business like Style me Ventures, Is it Capital Intensive?
The word “Capital intensive” is relative what is expensive to Mrs A might not be expensive to Mrs B. I think the first thing is to known your customer and the location where your business will be situated and cost of hair extension/attachment product because those are the factors to consider when you are making your budget
Like cost of renting a shop in mainland all-inclusive will be N250,000. But on the island it’s running into millions because cost of shop, equipment and tools has increased. Employment of a support staff (stylist) is also high; but if the passion is there all those afore mention is a walk over.
In the Hair Industry, many have complained about infiltration of fake products, what can be done to reduce it in the market?
With the increase in e-commerce sales, the opportunities for counterfeiting have increased as fake products has always been and will always be, as a professional you need to know where you get your products and how you get them but you can identify an original from a counterfeit with the following measures and make sure you are not taken for a ride such as.
Unreal discounts, Flimsy packaging, Grammatical & spelling mistakes on product name, Fake websites, Poor quality of products, No contact address on the product etc.
How did you manage to finance this business in its early days?
Well when I started I was assisted by the loans from the bank and others, plus my little savings adding monthly turn overs into capital. And we had no staff. I was just me and my sister, leaving with our parent so the business was not overburdened.
What were some of your biggest fears, when you started Style me Ventures?
No fear at all, because I love what I do so automatically the work will speak for itself, actually challenges always come but it’s seen as an opportunity to better improve our service delivery.
So, what are some of the challenges you face when running this business?
The challenges of course are finance, Poor Electricity power supply, increase in fuel price, cost of generator, lack of competent hands to assist, because lots of youth don’t understand dignity in labour they are looking for ways to make quick money, No price regulation or standard price. Etc.
Tell us about a highly difficult period where you probably thought of giving up and how you overcame it?
During the COVID, people were so afraid to go to the salon because of the fear of contacting the virus, so sales dropped drastically and I closed up my shop and started working from home. I concentrated on my online presence which made me to start having orders from all across the country, and of course internationally, I also started doing home service, sending encouraging messages to all my customers weekly all this boosted my business and made me bounce back , because rather than loose customers I gained more.
For contact
Pls my IG page is style me_ventures, facebook is maryidahosa
Phone number
08024708302
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