Henrietta Onwuegbuzie
Lagos Business School Pan Atlantic University
Henrietta Onwuegbuzie
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Vision Statement:
To be the leading indigenous one stop shop for women in West Africa by 2020
Mission Statement:
To provide quality products and services whilst empowering less privileged women and nourishing impoverished children. Goals/Objectives: The goals of The Hub for the next 5 years are as follows:
The business sold locally fabricated earrings, neck-pieces, cuff-links, brooches, belts, bracelets, bags and shoes.
10 for 10 is an enterprise that aims to address childhood malnourishment by feeding ten poor children for every N10,000 (as well as supporting education by providing books) customers spend on pieces of costume jewelry. Local and foreign raw materials such as Ankara, pearls, gold, steel, lace, leather, plastic and beads are used in the product manufacture. The finished goods are sold via the 10for10 accessories website, direct selling, and referrals.
The innovation in this business is the explicit linking of the business life cycle element together and to the community (sourcing materials, workforce, manufacturing, selling) while also adding the element of explicitly addressing greater societal needs (hunger, education). The business had initial success through the element of personal sales in combination with the explicit draw that purchases helped those in need. The business appears to have really taken off when the owner closed the links by shifting to training local women to create the accessories and using local materials where possible.
The business founder and owner, Otun’s, initial push came from a class assignment in business school. Her teacher required the students to start a business, with no more than $30, that was to deliver social good to the community as well as profitability to the business owner.
Otun narrowed down to the perfect business idea. She wanted to start up a fashion accessories business. The Fashion Accessories Industry in Nigeria was highly fragmented where over 70% of accessories sold in the previous year were imported from other countries. The costume accessories market was estimated to have annual revenue of about 15 billion naira in 2012 with a potential of 5% growth annually. This presented a huge opportunity that she combined with a focus on helping alleviate childhood hunger.
Her dream is to be the leading indigenous one stop shop for women in West Africa by 2020 by providing quality products and services whilst empowering less privileged women and nourishing impoverished children.
10 for 10’s five year targets are to:
A handful of underprivileged women have been trained and provided with a way to earn income and at least 1,500 undernourished children were provided with food.
The market response was strong. Once Otun communicated the goal of her business, customers not only purchased items, but some also donated money and offered to invest in the business. In 11 weeks, Otun’s revenues reached more than $10,000; her company made a profit, even after feeding 1,500 children and providing them with books to “feed their minds,” as Otun put it.
The initial social benefit was somewhat indirect – using profits to feed and provide books to underprivileged children. However the idea developed another social benefit when Otun realized that the accessories she was purchasing from China were not as high in quality or connections to the social fabric as those she could make locally. She started training less privileged women to produce local fashion accessories, starting with two women that were in dire need of a source of income. After a series of training from a specialist, they were armed basics of accessories making and Otun worked with them on how to lean on their creative sides to create unique and fresh designs.
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Otun, Business owner
