Temidola Ikomi, a 2017 graduate of the D’Amore-McKim College of Enterprise, actually missed the Northeastern neighborhood, so she joined Girls Who Empower.
Ikomi needed to construct new connections with like-minded ladies who wished to assist one another develop and might need their very own companies, she says, as a result of she is a co-founder of an African-inspired style model in Nigeria, her house nation.
“The individuals I’ve met to date on this journey have been wonderful,” Ikomi says.
This 12 months Ikomi was honored with a 2022 Innovator Award, offered by the Girls Who Empower, within the younger alumnae undergraduate class together with a $22,000 money prize. She entered the competitors final 12 months as properly, however didn’t win.
“It exhibits that being an entrepreneur doesn’t imply that you will surrender if you don’t get what you need. You simply carry on pushing and pushing,” Ikomi says.
Collectively along with her mom and two sisters she owns a Nigerian style model known as Irawo Studio. Irawo means “stars” in Yoruba, one of many three important languages spoken within the nation.
They at all times knew they needed to do one thing within the style world, Ikomi says.
“Trend has been a good way for me to specific how I really feel, my id with out essentially saying something,” she says. “All of us do love style. All of us additionally need to embrace our Yoruba tradition, [and] that’s one thing we’re in a position to do with a contemporary twist.”
Ikomi was born in Kano, within the northern a part of Nigeria, and grew up between Lagos, Nairobi, Kenya, and South Africa due to her father’s travels in company banking. She attended various worldwide faculties and have become accustomed to assembly individuals from totally different cultures.
In 2012, she enrolled in a school in Virginia, however didn’t really feel prefer it was various sufficient for her. She determined to switch out and selected Northeastern for its range and the co-op program.
“I consider I develop the very best by means of challenges at instances, and I felt the co-op program would actually enable me to see how it might be to be a full-time worker earlier than I graduate,” she says.
Whereas at Northeastern she was an adviser and the president of Northeastern African Scholar Group. She graduated from the D’Amore-McKim College of Enterprise in 2017 with a bachelor’s diploma in advertising and enterprise administration.
Her first job was in company communication. In 2018, Ikomi moved from Boston to Brooklyn, New York, the place she at the moment resides.
When each Temidola Ikomi and her sister Ama Ikomi graduated from school in 2017, the ladies in her household determined that it was time to start out a style enterprise again in Nigeria.
Ama Ikomi went to New York College Stern College of Enterprise and took on the accounting and finance of their new firm. Temidola Ikomi targeted on advertising and promoting. Their youthful sister Anire Ikomi, a graduate of Parsons College of Design, helps with the model’s public picture.
The day-to-day operation of the enterprise is overseen by their mom, Abby Ikomi, who’s the inventive director of Irawo and lives in Lagos full-time.
Ikomi says she will get her entrepreneurial nature from her mom. In each nation they lived in, her mom had a enterprise: hair, furnishings, jewellery.
“I feel that’s how I’m, too. Once I’m very captivated with one thing, I give it my all, and I need to be sure that it’s profitable,” Ikomi says.
Working along with her household was a bit difficult the primary 12 months, she says, as a result of they wanted to grasp the dynamics between themselves.
“As a result of it’s household, you may simply be very blunt and be trustworthy. And generally that’s what you want within the enterprise,” she says.
They attempt to preserve their concentrate on what’s the greatest for the enterprise. All of them take part within the inventive improvement course of, brainstorming collectively concerning the model’s messaging or the following lookbook, Ikomi says.
On the similar time, Ikomi says, they’re a Nigerian household first, and her mom will at all times have their unconditional respect. The enterprise comes after that.
Within the first 12 months of operation, they determined to take part in one of many greatest style exhibits in Lagos known as Come up to make a grand entrance to a reasonably saturated market, Ikomi says. Irawo Studio additionally participated within the Glitz Trend Week in Ghana.
“We did all these style exhibits to assist us embark [on this journey],” Ikomi says.
She describes the Irawo garments as African-inspired womenswear that’s trendy and stylish in addition to very comfy {and professional}. She says, Irawo clothes are for trailblazers who’re chasing their goals in their very own method. They are often moms, college students or working skilled ladies.
“We need to actually deliver out your inside star,” Ikomi says. “We at all times say, our items are funding items, which means whatever the development, it’s nonetheless one thing that you could put on, for a lot of, a few years.”
Additionally they make bespoke items for milestone birthdays, weddings or marriage ceremony receptions.
The corporate carries out all elements of the manufacturing course of in-house, from conceptualizing the materials and clothes’ design to execution and transport to purchasers. A staff of in-house artisans designs all the material patterns, which permits Irawo Studio to fully management their provide chain, Ikomi says.
In 5 years, the corporate firmly established itself throughout the West African markets, Ikomi says, with greatest gross sales in Nigeria and Ghana. They’ve additionally seen progress within the U.Ok. and U.S., primarily in New York Metropolis and Atlanta, Ikomi says. They ship world-wide as properly.
Their aim now could be to broaden extra on the U.S. market in an genuine method, to develop gross sales and get into extra retailers.
“Now we have utilized influencers to assist us break into the U.S. market,” Ikomi says. “We do loads of paid promoting as properly.”
This expertise with launching and working Irawo Studio taught Ikomi that an entrepreneur must have an entire 360-degree view of their enterprise.
“You actually have to be absolutely geared up to know your online business inside and outside,” she says.
That’s the reason she moved again to Lagos in 2019 for a 12 months and a half to higher perceive the operations of the enterprise and its bills.
Ikomi nonetheless continues working in advertising and communications outdoors of Irawo Studio.
“I consider in being very well-rounded and using what I’m studying on my job for the enterprise,” she says. “It’s not essentially about selecting one, but it surely’s about making time for no matter is necessary to you and prioritizing your time.”
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