Interviews
Inspiring Fashion Entrepreneur, Olatorera Oniru Talks About Her Upcoming Event ‘Cocktails and Dresses’
Olatorera Oniru is one ambitious young entrepreneur. The 29 year-old lady is the founder of Dressmeoutlet.com, a Lagos-based e-commerce startup that retails fashion products sourced from across the globe.
As Dressmeoutlet.com prepares for the its second edition of ‘Cocktails and Dresses’ event set to hold on the 11th of December, 2016 at the luxurious Intercontinental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, OnoBello.com interviews Olatorera who talks about her journey and inspiration behind what is argurably one of the largest gathering of Made in Africa products. Olatorera also promises to bring together over 1000 attendees and notable Personalities under one roof to promote Nigeria and indeed Africa.
Read all about this below.
Q: Can you take us through your journey of being a CEO, a mother of two, a wife and a sought-after speaker? How have you been able to balance all these areas of your life?
OO: Life can be any and everything we make it out to be. Everything I labor for today is everything I’ve always wanted. Everything I attain tomorrow, will be everything I’ve always wanted. We are on earth to make a difference, to grow, to excel, to be great and to enjoy. My journey is my dreams realized and I’m very thankful. There’s no secret to balancing life, we have 24 hours in each day and I plan ahead to max out every min
Q: Cocktails and Dresses held its first edition in May and recorded good success, what new developments have you made to make this edition a greater success?
OO: We are very excited about the upcoming edition. We have key sponsors including First Bank of Nigeria and Amarula. We also have a lot more media partners joining forces to ensure this edition truly will be the Largest Gathering of Made in Africa’s Best. We are expecting attendees from as far as Ghana, South Africa, Canada and the USA.
Q: As a successful fashion entrepreneur, how would you rate the progression of the African fashion industry within the last 5 years?
OO: The African fashion industry is growing significantly with lots of SME players trooping in on a daily basis and is currently projected at a worth of over $30b. There’s still a whole lot of work, planning, analytics and growth that needs to be realized to put the industry on a global map but the good news is that with the vast amount of ambitious players trooping into the industry, putting the industry on the world map will be realized within the next 3 to 6 years.
Q: You have always been a strong believer in seeing the opportunity in every challenge. Does it mean your entrepreneurial journey has been a smooth and rosy one?
OO: Possibly, I’m not sure. What I do know is that I don’t focus on challenges rather I focus on deriving results from every undertaking. Challenges are part of life, meant to be solved and not dealt on. Everyone deals with challenges from the world’s richest men to the Kanye West’s to the Dangote’s to the Trump’s. What’s important is to grow in life, focusing less on challenges and more on the results you desire.
Q: At 29 you have been able to carve a niche for yourself in the fashion and ecommerce industries, still there is a low percentage of African women contributing to the economy. What do you think is the reason behind this?
OO: Men have had most of the power over centuries; the world is only recently appreciating the strength and power in hardworking, capable women and this is expected to rise even more and significantly. Nonetheless, whether as housewives or as single mothers or as employees, women continue to contribute wholesomely to the growth of the economy whether through their husbands, their fathers or their children. Although it is excellently great to see women now contribute directly to entrepreneurship, C-Suites, politics and more while creating jobs, alleviating poverty, introducing innovation and creativity and so much more. I want to see this growth in women contributing beyond the home scale up even more in years to come.
Q: In anticipation of the Largest Gathering of Made in Africa’s Best, what else is lined up for the customers of Dressmeoutlet.com in this festive season?
OO: We will be distributing over 500 shopping vouchers to be used at the event on the 11th of December. Customers should stay tuned to our social media pages @dressmeoutlet and should plan to arrive very early at the event on the 11thof December. There will be lots of contests from our strategic partners and lots of drinks from our drinks sponsor Amarula. We look forward to a grand full-day black carpet shopping rave. In addition to Cocktails & Dresses, Dressmeoutlet.com is also engineering some programs to grow the industry and these include the Style Champions program where we reward members for selling for Dressmeoutlet.com and also our Creative Entrepreneurs Program where we provide mentorship and financing to ambitious, high-potential creative entrepreneurs in the fashion and beauty industries. More details on all programs can be found on our website at Dressmeoutlet.com.
Q: With over 50 fashion and beauty designers expected at the event and 2,000+ expected attendees. How do you intend to manage the crowd and how can one be part of this shopping rave Largest Gathering of Made in Africa’s Best?
OO: We are all set! All plans are in place for an amazing event. It is a full-day event and thus we expect some attendees would stay for the entire day as there’s just so much to interact with and others will troop in and troop out after some hours. To attend Cocktails & Dresses on December 11th, 2016 at Intercontinental Lagos, please register at www.dressmeoutlet.com/cocktailsanddresses. On behalf of team Dressmeoutlet.com, our partners, exhibitors and sponsors, we look forward to hosting all attendees.