“I
thought it was a great idea. After all, how does the All African Games come to
town?”
Tino
as she pondered her decision to open a T-shirt-shop. Tino opened her new store,
Tino’s shirts in August 2003, a few months before the starts of the 8th
All African Games (COJA 2003) at the National Stadium, Abuja, Federal Capital
Territory.
A
few years earlier, just after the announcement had been made that COJA 2003,
would be held in Abuja, entrepreneurs began to make plans to capitalize on this
monumental event. The COJA committee had projected that 1 million people would
come to the area over a 14-day period. The economic impact of the 8th
All African Games was expected to be significant.
A
major event like the All African Games had the potential to attract
less-than-scrupulous business operators hoping to get rich quick. Therefore,
prospective vendors at the event had to apply and register after agreeing to
the specific terms and conditions by the organizers of the Games. They were
then required to pay for a retail space within a defined COJA area. Vendors
selling products with the COJA logo were also required to obtain permission and
to pay a fee for use of the logo.
Tino
had no desire to go through the COJA bureaucracy to become an official COJA
vendor.
However,
she thought that she could still capitalize on the games as a good opportunity
for her, to start a business. Tino reasoned:
“Why
should big businesses, and people from outside the state, be the only ones to
benefit from this once - in-a-lifetime opportunity? A native like me should be
in a better position than others to begin a business in the area.”
Tino’s background
Tino
was born and brought up in Gwagwalada, one of the local government councils in
the Federal Capital Territory. Gwagwalada, which was a few kilometers from
Abuja main city, was a highly populated town which housed both the University
of Abuja and a nursing school. Tino’s parents and grandparents had made
substantial investments in the economic development of the community. In fact,
long before Abuja became the Federal Capital Territory, Tino’s grandmother had
acquired a residential estate as well as property located along a main
thoroughfare in Gwagwalada, a few kilometers from the future university.
While
she lives, she conducted a successful business providing rental housing for
university students and families and had run a big provision store, where she
cooked and sold meals.
Her
property had been passed down to her heirs and were still owned by members of
Tino’s family, although they were not all actively rented as they had been in
the past.
At
first Tino wasn’t sure what type of business she wanted to start. She
considered several options, including a saloon shop and a barbecue joint,
however none of them seemed quite right to her.
Tino
was a bright lady, with a degree in Philosophy from the University of Jos. When
she graduated, the job market was tight, and Tino ultimately accepted a management
training position with a major regional bank. Tino was good with the bank’s
customers and well liked by other employees. She demonstrated an ability to
effectively manage many different tasks simultaneously.
However,
after three years, Tino was bored with her job, she realized she was doing the
same routine tasks over and over again-only the names and faces changed. Tino
also learned that “Bank hours” did not allow for much free time. She found
herself working most weekdays from 7.00am till about 9.00pm. She hardly foud
time to attend any social gathering, even the ones she joined like the Rotary
club and Association of Abuja sons and Daughters. She also had to go to work on
some weekends.
Tino
began to dream of a job that would allow her purse a lifestyle more in keeping
with her personal goal. She wished that she could come up with a business that
would afford her greater flexibility with her time, let her be her own boss and
provide her with enough to live a comfortable life.
One
day, while having lunch with a friend in a snack shop near campus, Tino noticed
every university students in the restaurant was wearing either a jeans, khaki
or shorts with a T-shirt. Some of the shirts had popular slogan printed on
while others advertised professional sports’ teams and music groups. She
however noticed that the prints on the shirts had nothing to do with Africa or
the Nigerian community.
‘’That’s
it” Tino exclaimed to her friend Tilewa who was calmly munching a meat-pie.
“A
T-shirt shop…next to the campus…selling T-shirts, like the ones you see all
around us….T-shirts with Nigerian theme; I love Naija’ , ‘proudly Naija’…. Some
might even be about the All African Games! This could be good, Tilewa.”
For
Tino, that moment was the inspiration for her business, which later became
known as Tino’s Shirts.
Business Commences
Almost
immediately, Tino began making arrangements to open her business. A vacant
building in her grandmother’s estate was selected as the location. Originally
constructed in 1990, as a residence, it was a brick structure of about 1200ft.
It was located a few blocks away from the university campus.
Tino
wanted her store to have a casual and relaxed atmosphere but did not want it
associated in any way with clothing shops that sold common T-shirts. The
quality and the prints on her T-shirts would be far different and superior to
that of shirts sold in those types of shops and he wanted the distinction to be
clear to prospective customers. So she decided to use an art-gallery style to
display her merchandise. She thought it would be an effective way of suggesting
the quality of the merchandise. She painted the walls of the interior display
racks black, and installed track lighting on the ceiling to highlight shirts
racks attached to the walls. The house had a hardwood floor, and a bit of
buffing gave it a clean and a polished appearance. Tino purchased a large,
oblong antique table which would support the cash register and provide space
for completing sales transactions. He had a classy wooden sign erected in front
of the building, with ‘‘Tino’s Shirt” emblazoned on both sides.
Of
the many T-shirts suppliers in Abuja, Tino identified three that sold
top-quality, 100 percent cotton T-shirts with unique designs. However, one of
the suppliers was not willing to sell the small quantities that Tino required
and the second was unwilling to establish any type of trade credit with a new
business. The third supplier was more flexible and agreed to provide T-shirts in
lots of one dozen in assorted sizes which Tino could specify. So Tino stocked
her store through this supplier and supplemented the stock as needed through
the second supplier, buying only what she could afford to pay for.
For
the initial inventory, she personally selected each of the T-shirts. She wanted
unique shirts that would appeal to university students and people in town and
so focused on T-shirts with bright, vivid colors. To set the selling prices for
the shirts, she marked each item up 100% thus; a T-shirts that cost N500 would
be priced at N1, 000. Although Tino hoped she would eventually be able to
resign from her job at the bank and operate the store herself, she didn’t think
she could give up her job until she could determine whether the shop could
provide sufficient income to support her family.
Tino
was pleased when she was able to convince Funmi, her brother-in-law to manage
the store for her. The hours of operation for the store were set at 11.00a.m to
6.00p.m, Monday through Friday and 10.00a.m to 5.00p.m on Saturday. The fact
that the store’s hours were determined by Funmi’s schedule seemed acceptable to
Tino if not ideal.
To be continued...
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Talented Olayinka
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