Small Business Visibility versus Availability

Running a business involves a lot of tactics. You must constantly be on top of your game because your competitor is not on Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp to play. Every business owner is out to make money and profit. 

On of the surest way of selling in your physical shop and online shop is that  you must never stop promoting your business because you  never know who might be in need of your products or services.

Promoting your business is giving your business visibility. Visibility  makes your buyers know what you have to offer them and how to reach you when they want to buy.

Visibility can only bring customers, it is not enough to convince them to buy. What convinces your prospective customer to buy from you is your capacity to be AVAILABLE. 

When you are available to attend to customers enquiry promptly, they will be able to make the decision to buy from you and if you treat them nicely when you are attending to them enquiries, they are happy.

A happy customer is convinced enough to pay you money for your product and services.

Make it a part of your marketing goals to be visible and available.

Adepeju Adenle

Creating Unique Fashion Pieces

How do you decide on what craft or fashion piece to create? Is it based on inspiration, for the fun of it or you are in it to make money?

The key to creating unique pieces for your craft or fashion piece is to do a research into what people want to see, use and will be interested in buying.

When you create a design with the user in mind, it gets accepted easily and this will convert to sales for you. 

When next you have the urge to create new craft and fashion pieces, check out the new trends and find a spot within the new trends you can leverage on to create unique pieces.

Pink Shoe Makeover

A few weeks back, a dear friend blessed me with a pink shoe.  I loved it upon seeing it but alas,  I am not a pink kind of girl. 

I quietly stowed it away in it box in my drawer.  Just yesterday,  the pink shoe made its first appearance but with a little makeover.

I had to use a stretch of black ribbon to make small bows and stuck it to the side of the pink shoe.  It looked great,  I rocked it and everyone loved it.

What more can I ask for.  Thanks to Boluwatife Adeniyi... you rock my world.

MAKE THAT SCARF COUNT THIS SEASON!!!

Welcome. It is always my pleasure to bring to the attention of my readers what it is that will make 2016 a glorious year for me. 2016 is my year to appreciate other talented and creative people around me or that I am to come be across this year.  

To kick off, I will be featuring Oghenero Odioko - founder and CEO of NerolineZeal and her scarf adventures. 

As a true Nigerian babe I must confess that I am addicted to the tying of scarves (.... once upon a time though!  I remember those times fondly). Just as I love to tie a good scarf,  the average Nigerian girl, lady or woman is not left out. We love our scarves.  The Yoruba people call it 'Gele' and the Igbo's  call it 'Ichafukwu'. 

Scarves as we know come in different colours and texture. It has been known globally to draw attention to the wearer. To me, the tying of a scarf is an extention of my identity.  Show me a woman with a scarf and i will tell you which tribe she is from. The neccessity attached to this head accessory is uncanny.  Moreover,  the modern Nigerian lady has taken the tying of scarves to new and astonishing  dimension. The manoeuvring of the fabric to bring out esoteric designs that makes the wearer look chic and classy at the same time, wowing onlookers is a thing of wonder. 

Therefore, I present to you Oghenero Odioko, founder and CEO of NerolineZeal. She is equipped with the neccessary skill and creativity to distinguish herself from the throng of wannabe's of the Nigeria fashion industry.  

Not only has she being unto the art of tying scarves for three years, this year, she has decided to go public. This she believes would create an avenue for the public and global sphere enjoy her craft. 

She is presently running workshops on the art of tying scarves fondly called 'gele'. She also renders home services for weddings and other occassion as needs arise. 

Celebrate with me a lady of grace, talent and skill. 
NerolineZeal is here to shine and stay. 

See more of NerolineZeal on:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/neroline
Instagram: www.instagram.com/nerolinezeal
E-mail: shollipopin@yahoo.com

WHY WE DO THE THINGS WE DO CREATIVELY

Oftentimes in my country, I see young adults and adults alike delve into a new world of creativity. Creativity to me suggests all forms of entrepreneurship skills we think we need for survival either fueled by passion or necessity. My parents gave birth to me with the intention of seeing me grow up becoming a successful woman. Along the line I discovered my flare for dipping my hands into anything that has to do with beauty. At that age of 8, I have discovered my passion and creative space. All I needed to do was be educated and find a way to merge my professional life and my creative space together within the space provided by my country. 

Oftentimes again, I see many creative beings not knowing what to do with all the talent bubbling inside of them. Oftentimes too, I see a lot of graduate looking for ways to earn a living adopt a creative space and become successful even more so than the creatively spatial person. My point here is- how to develop passion out of your entrepreneurship skills. Entrepreneurship to me implies individuals who take up sewing, cobblers, beading, manufacturing, repackaging, events planning, and other service providers, etc. 

Developing a passion for what gives you money goes beyond servicing a need and being paid for the 'passioned' service. Passion to me for a service I render starts with my ability to share with others freely my knowledge without expecting anything in return. At this point, I ask myself, Why Should I Share My Knowledge About An Idea or Skill with Anyone? Simple- TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN, MUCH IS EXPECTED. 

WHY THEN DO I DO THE THINGS I DO CREATIVELY? Let me be sincere to myself, most of my developing knowledge about the things I dabble into are made possible through research. Research here is my ability to surf the Internet and see what others are doing which I am into and updating my knowledge for free without paying anyone a kobo. Research also includes all the free YouTube videos I downloaded, all the Pinterest pictures I saved on my phones and IPad, all the pictures I screen grabbed on Instagram, all the groups I joined for free on Facebook and not forgetting the worldwide information I get through Google. To therefore do the things which I do creatively, I must make my creativity public. 

I have discovered that those who share ideas for free eventually become an authority within their creative space, gain respect from everyone including colleagues who hoard information.So I have decided that I would rather gain repect with long lasting popularity by sharing with others what I know than remain a reservoir of unused memories. 

Therefore fellow Creative beings, let's learn to share freely our knowledge wherever we see it would be useful because through this we are all able to do the things we do creatively. 

Keep Sharing, 

God Bless us all. 

PeekyThoughts

Hi there,

While evaluating my experience during these last four month (October-January), it dawned on me that I have a lot to be grateful for contrary to what I see all around me. The news on television nowadays aren't inspiring enough to live by and so, the need to look deep inside of myself and look a little closely into the words of the Lord, definitely did boost my mood. It also reassured me that while I'm still on the way to my destination, I must thank God while I'm on the steps to my destination. 

Phew! I needed to say all that to emphasis that I believe I am on the right track. Still on the right track mood,  I made some designs using thoughts that has inspired me this week. I achieved it through the MarthaStewar craftstudio app. It did help me in putting my thoughts down. Although I had to edit the finished work by cropping excess white space out. I believe the result came out great. 

Share your thought and comment on the image you like the most.

Enjoy.

Unusual Adventures

2014 is fast coming to an end I thought as I sat down this afternoon. I had some serious thinking to do. A single idea kept interrupting my line of thought. I shake it off but it kept struggling to come out. I discover I have a lot to be grateful for. So, to show my gratitude, I dug out my ipad ready to do some serious Thank You design.

Then I stumbled upon RedStamp. Now this is an app that thinks for you and in thinking for you-your hand starts twitching. That's exactly what happened to me. And I was able to come out with this great design. My favourite design is the one I made for my Sunday School Children. It absolutely spoke to me and my Younger Teens were all ecstatic that I did this.

Here you have it, isn't it wonderful?!
Thanks for your confidence .
Until later.

A Wedding Inspiration

My wonderful friend Ekaite got married on the 18th of October, 2014. She is a dear friend and our friendship is thirteen years and still counting. So on her wedding day, I took it upon myself to look not only good but smashing while retaining a level of decency.

For this to happen, I had to go through my fabric stash and see what it has in store for me to use. Lucky for me, I found the perfect fabric and out of it came this beautiful piece I have on. 

The wedding was beautiful and the dress came out looking way nicer than what I had imagined. 

For my plus one to this wedding, I invited my little friend Temilolu Fabayo and equally took it upon myself to sew something nice and girly for her. 

What do you think? Yeah I know- lovely! My sentiments exactly. 

Here are two more picture from the day:

It's always good to share good news and lovely pictures of days you are totally grateful for. I am grateful to experience this day with my friend. And I will be sharing some of my pictures with her soon.

I hope you enjoy my sewing efforts : )

Thank you.

Button It Up

I love pretty things and buttons happen to be one of the pretty things I love. The art of using buttons in many ways is inspiring. Crafters all over outdo themselves day in day out to create something unique they could wear or sell. 

Here are a couple of Buttons ideas I find enlightening.

 

Courtesy --    http://www.shawkl.com/

Courtesy: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitschandcurious/4816704784/in/pool-783890@N25/

My Topsy Turvy Cakecacious Experience

After all said and done, you move on to find new and greener pastures. You engage your mind in productive experiences and pray that it all works out for the best. I love cakes but over the years, I have done pretty much nothing about it. But today, I will. This does not mean I will bake a cake- nah, it simply implies that I will be sharing a couple of pictures on cakes I found interesting enough to eat today. Yeah I know, I've got a sweet tooth.

 My InsPinteresion springs on this lovely Topsy Turvy Cakes. The cakes I selected here simply looks ravishing enough for me to dive in and find bliss ;).  I will let y'all decide if the cakes are good enough to it.

N.B: all pictures are gotten through some lovely pincers @ Pinterest who choose to bless me everyday with their ingenuity. To see more, you can view it @ Cakes I Love here 

http://www.pinterest.com/adepejuadenle/cakes-i-love/. 

So...?

Enjoy the rest of your day and stay blessed.

Pretty Spring dress

I know its cold and all that in some part of the world, but here in Nigeria- it is so hot, you just have to keep the air conditioner on at all times and have showers all day. This is a lovely tutorial and I had just come across it. I couldn't stop by and do nothing with it. So I made up my mind to share it with you all pending when I get my groove back. The link to making this pretty dress is found just below  at Make it and Love it and I am sure you would have as much fun as I will have making one of this. Interestingly, I think I will adapt the style to fit me and so I should be strutting me for all to see.

Found the link to this lovely tutorial Here.
Make one of this today and put a smile on your little girls face
Have fun and stay blessed.

WHAT TO DO WHEN IT RAINS

Here is a list of possible things I might do if I am home when it rains as a babe:

Sleep
Watch a movie
Do laundry
Play a game
Call a Friend
Tweet
Facebook
Blog
Eat
Pray
Paint
Think about a boy
Re-arrange the Living room
Stare at the wall

As a guy, here is my list

Call a girl
Call a second girl
Call the third girl
Have a drink





What would you do when it Rains? Share your actions.

Kindle Fire Event Sign Ups

Kindle Fire Event Sign Ups

 

In honor of its Grand Opening, Literary Addicts has teamed up with Promotional Book Tours and 10 authors for a Kindle Fire giveaway between 6/15-6/29. They are looking for bloggers to join the celebration. The best part is it's FREE to sign up! You will get 1 free link to either Facebook or Twitter added to the Rafflecopter form as long as you commit to posting the giveaway on June 15.

You can get a second free link in exchange for posting about the blogger sign up (which I just did). You may sign up by filling out the form here

Information courtesy: mmbearcupoftea

YOU HAVE NO IDEA

  A BOOK BY VANESSA WILLIAMS AND HELEN WILLIAMS

"This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own." 

MOVIE IN A BOOK!

Most times adults while sipping a glass of lemonade wonder if things would have been a little less difficult, a little more comfortable or simply just better if they had listened to their mothers and obeyed the rules in the house. I am a member of the club too! breaking the rules seems to be a favorite hobby of mine.  You Have No Idea is a perfect book for such reflections. I remember growing up and wishing I would one day become a Vanessa Williams in my own corner of the world. Little did I know what the price of stardom could be. Reading the book gives you the feeling you are actually watching a movie like Pride and Prejudice. The fluidity of language is compelling. The arrangement of plot is addictive-all these come together to make it a larger than life book to read. You simply get the popcorn and soda effect.

You HAve No Idea is more than a book. Its a guide. Tips from mother to daughter and daughter to mother. Reflections on 'Ifs', 'Whys' and 'How'. Reflections on how the experience in a person life can help build and shape one for future challenges. Reflections on how disobedience could almost ruin a lifelong work. Reflections on disaster management skills. Reflections on the essence of having a good family background and love. The bound of love between parents and their children is simply magnetic.  Reading it once does not do justice to it. You simply have to reread it. Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams bares it all for the public to read, identify with and learn. 

This wholesome and soulful book is all about tipping you on how to be a better you. You simply leave with a feeling that you have just acquired the perfect recipe for baking your daughters favorites cupcakes. You really have no idea about Vanessa Williams until you read You Have No Idea.

Happy reading. Bon chance!

Adepeju@Peekadot

Shop my AVON store!

 Here is a sneak peak on the wonders available to women.



Shop my AVON store!: Here's a sneak peak at some of the latest products available at Avon. Be sure to click

ECLAT COLLECTIONS

Name: EVELYN DAIRO

Location: NO 1 AMBALI JUNCTION ILE-IWE CANCEL BUS/STOP IKOTUN.

Business Name: ECLAT COLLECTIONS

Website: WWW.ECLATCOLLECTIONS.COM

It brings me pleasure to introduce Evelyn Dairo, a creative artist who found an outlet for her passion through bead making. I must confess I am impressed by the beauty of her creations and its versatility. Here is a brief interview with her on how she has been able to stand the test of time in the bead making business here in Nigeria. 

Evelyn Dairo

Me: Hi Evelyn, could you tell us a little about your collections? 

Evelyn: I make beautiful, affordable accessories that can be dressed-up or dressed-down to fit any occasion.

Me: What inspires you when you create?

Evelyn:  I get inspired by designs that are challenging and attention grabbing. It could be derived from jewelry I see on people or styles that pop into my head. For example: if I see a necklace on someone and I'll try to use it as a template to create something more appealing. I love creating jewelry beyond typical designs.

Eclat Collections by Evelyn Dairo

Me:  Do you sell your creations? If so, how, and is it profitable?

Evelyn: Yes, I sell them on my website www.eclatcollections.com. All a customer has to do is choose items from the Éclat Collections gallery, place an order and I'll automatically get an email, respond and do the delivery. It is very profitable but I do it for the love of jewelry-making. It brings me so much joy to stand back and admire my final product on a happy client.

Eclat Collections by Evelyn Dairo

Me:  What mistakes have you made or lesson you have learned?
Evelyn: Well to God be the glory, I haven’t made any mistakes that could have been detrimental to my business' growth. An important lesson that I learned from this business is to never underestimate yourself or your creations. People will pay good money for something you know is good. But first you have to believe within yourself that what you made is worth the price tag, after all, you invested a lot of time and hard work into it.

Eclat Collections by Evelyn Dairo

Me: What to you is success? Have you reached it yet, or are you on your way towards success?

Evelyn: Success to me is continuous growth, I know that I haven't reached my peak yet but I’m forever grateful to God because He has always been my companion on this journey.

Eclat Collections by Evelyn Dairo

Me:  So, what's next?

Evelyn: I currently do most of my business online; I know that I’m only reaching one particular type of market - the internet-savvy shoppers. I’d love to tap into the market of customers who still shop at the traditional brick-and-mortar stores. By God's Grace, I will open up my office in December 2011.

Thank you Evelyn for been such a wonderful guest on my blog.

To my readers, I am sure Evelyn has her  office up and running. Visit @  Eclat Collections

Farewell

Bawo ni,

It all seemed like yesterday when I came into the US. How time flies. I sometimes wonder what it is exactly I have been able to achieve. I also wonder at times if the primary objective of coming to the US -Fayetteville State University, North Carolina was actually achieved. Well, during the Farewell ceremony organized by the Internationl Studies Centre in FSU, I realized that it was worth it. My purpose was fulfilled and Yes I have imparted my culture to students of Fayetteville State University. I am the better for it. My Yoruba Class experience was awesome and my 14 students have done a terrific job learning a new language. I am so proud of them all. I have a strong feeling that this is not the end of the journey for me here in the US, but for now I have to take a bow and hope that the relationship I have with my students last forever.

Here is one of my favorite picture with two of my students: Ayoolu and Bolarin looking very lovely in their outfit.

 

 

Fayetteville State University Yoruba Students and teacher

 O dabo!

Persistent Desire

For a while I have been out of tune with my self and every desire I had for my dream seemed to have dissipated. It is worthy to say that the lack of drive for any accomplishment did not bother me for a long while. I knew it was there. I recognize that the spirit of limbo hung all around me. The will power to do any thing about it howsoever was not to be  found. God has not given unto me the spirit of fear, that I am so sure of. Just  this afternoon while reading Think Rich, Grow Rich it all came tumbling back to me what the problem was. I have put myself into a state of impossibilities. I have conditioned my mind that there were no ways of me accomplishing my dream in a new terrain. Lo and behold, I have lied to myself  for months and reduced the creative power in me for great works. Desire is a strong thing to hold unto even in the face of impossibility. the constant renewal of the mind in the fact that it is possible is a must sought out task for me.It may not happen today but with faith, persistence and working toward the goal- it is bound to manifest. 

Yah!!!

The Magic Room - A Blog Her Book Review

This is a Blog Her Book Club paid review of The Magic Room by Jeffery Zaslow.  The opinions expressed here, however, are mine.

Every single woman including myself have at one point in time dreamed of what their wedding dress will look like. Some like me have drawn it out and just waiting for the day the right man would ask their hand in marriage. 

The book, TheMagic Room, tells a compelling story of three generation of women in Michigan who have succeeded in turning many ducklings into swans through the art of choosing the right dress for the bride since the1930's.

A very inspirational and emotional book, that focuses not only on the physical attributes of these brides but also on their inner workings regarding their upcoming wedding.  As each of these brides stepped into their chosen dress and gaze into the mirror-they not only see how radiant they look but how far they have come. The feelings of pain, love, grief, loss, tears, and lateness-all of these resound not only in their thought but also within those around them.  A simple fact is stated through this- love and marriage is magical.

This book cannot be read and easily discarded because the message in it is deep. The message is rooted in determination for success, continuity, empowerment and love. For 70 years, the Becker’s Bridal’s have survived the ever changing economic tides and fashion trends.

After my reading, I am especially drawn to the Otto girl’s story and their unconventional willpower. A lot can be said about the different stories and the way it is told is very enthralling. There was a point where I could not help but cry as I read and share in each of these women stories.

I totally enjoyed reading this book. It gave me a chance to see into the minds of various women on the brink of commitment, the joy that comes with finding the perfect dress and the essential role of a mother in all these. I highly recommend this book to all women and fathers of daughters.   

Join the conversation: The Blog Her Book Club Magic Room Discussion

In the Spirit of Cristmas

I had to change my look. What better way to do it than to have a good hairdo. Therefore I have decided to treat myself to a nice look for Christmas. Not by going to the salon but by taking a shortcut and getting myself a new wig to camouflage the old me into a new me. Lets hope it looks as good as it does on the dummy. I will be disclosing my new look tomorrow- the eve of Christmas. 

Until then...c u soonest!!!1