How successful entrepreneurs start up with there savings

 10 SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS WHO USED SAVINGS TO LAUNCH THEIR BUSINESSES

While it is easy to say, “I want to be my own boss”, one common headache of start-ups is getting funding. While there are several ways to tackle this “palava”, a number of successful entrepreneurs sorted out the problem of funding with their savings.

1. Evans Akanno:

Evans Akanno is the founder of Cregital, a creative and digital agency. With his personal savings and by bootstrapping, he jumpstarted his enterprise with a team of four. Maximising his savings to launch his idea worked out, as Cregital has been recognised with a number of awards following its inception in 2015.

2. Ola Brown Orekunrin: 

Also known as the Flying Doctor, Doctor Ola Brown, started her emergency air ambulance service by taking advantage of her earnings as a doctor outside Nigeria, when she graduated from medical school. Her habit of saving started as early as her pre-university days when she sponsored herself to Medical School with her earnings as a staff at Amazon. The avoidable loss of her sister from her inability to be airlifted for medical treatment inspired Ola to provide the service in West Africa.

3. Yomi Ojo:

Yomi Ojo is a remarkable example of someone who attracts goodness by putting himself forward. With his savings and that of two other friends whom he teamed up with in 2013, he launched Printivo, an online do-it-yourself printing service. This led to his receipt of a grant of N7million from the YouWin project of the Federal Government. This was followed by $10,000 prize money from the Etisalat Innovation Award.

4. Ayo Megbope:

When she started selling Moi Moi, Ayo Megbope did not have the portfolio required by the banking system to secure a loan. With ₦10,000 of her own savings, she began her food business. Upon receiving training from Goldman Sachs in partnership with Enterprise Development Centre, Ayo Megbope named her business – No Left Overs Limited. The business has scaled since then to incredible heights, even as far as taking her to the White House.

5. Fikayo Ogundipe:

Upon his graduation from school, Fikayo along with a team of three other friends in 2012, pooled their funds together to found ToLet.com.ng, an online place for finding rental properties. A year after, their efforts attracted investors and consequently, the venture moved from being self-funded to receiving a seed capital of $230,000 from Jason Njoku’s venture fund.

6. Ijeoma Ndukwe-Egwuronu:

Because she was neck-deep in debt as a retailer dealing in luxury clothing, Ijeoma, self-nicknamed, “Nwanyi Akamu” and “Iya Ologi”, decided to use the sale value in her house to bail herself out of debt. It turned out to be the “pap” in her fridge. Sitting on a panel at The Unstock Conference in 2017, she revealed how she started with a capital of ₦200 to purchase a can of corn with which she prepared her first portion of pap for sale. With Blackberry messenger and her new self-given alias serving as her pin, she sold to her first customer and a profitable venture kicked off from there.

7. Abiodun Folawiyo:

Armed with only his passion for shoemaking, it was difficult for Abiodun to raise capital from family members because of his choice of profession. However, he was able to start his enterprise – Shoe Speed – with N12,500 of his own savings in 2001. His craft is well commended for artisanal excellence. He recently won Diamond Bank’s BET award.

8. Kehinde Kamson:

Kehinde Kamson has an unhidden love for food. She started dealing with fish while running her full-time job at an Oil and Gas firm. The endeavour lasted for five years, although, it wasn't successful. She left that and went into the baking of pastries and this business exceeded expectation. She eventually quit her full-time job and added more options to her menu, to later set up what is today known as "Sweet Sensation". The company began in her gate man's little shed. 

9. Seun Osewa:

Seun is the brain behind Nairaland, an indigenous online forum. With his own funds, Seun first tried his hands on Web hosting. The endeavour wasn’t successful and after three months, he switched to another business idea which turned out to be Nairaland. Today, the site is one of the most visited in Nigeria, in spite of other popular social sites.

10. Blessing Achu:

Because it was not easy getting external funding, Blessing used ₦10 Million from her personal savings, to found 360 Creative Hub. Her intent was to raise the standard and conditions of garment construction in Nigeria. Little wonder that she was able to raise that much as she saved during her over ten years of experience in Business Development, Software and Telecommunications Industry