Two weeks ago, I took my first ever leave from the office after two years of working. I took time out to reflect on the work done so far. I was scared of leaving the team to work on their own because I had become accustomed to being ever-present. I had even postponed my leave several times for this reason and in order to make it difficult for me to find my way to the office, I had to leave Lagos.
My time in Abuja was enjoyable, my days were calm, filled with hearty laughs and memorable moments with friends and family. I was at rest and that made reflection easier.
I realize that although the ride has been far from smooth, I am proud of the work and progress Wii have made. Some would call two graduates starting a company straight from University an unwise decision but I am glad we took the ride. This is the story of how Wii began.
It all started with a tweet.
Donald Onwochie expressed his need for a Co-founder who would develop and run with an idea he had. Donald had just finished from Covenant University at that time while I was awaiting my convocation. I had not met him before this tweet and the only interaction I had with Donald prior to this was when I asked about the font used in his header image a couple weeks before. Safe to say #WiiMetOnTwitter.
The next day we had a meeting to discuss the idea and expressed our hopes before Wii knew it, days turned into weeks and within three months Wii were working on research and pitch decks. I tell a lot of friends that social media is not just social media, it is a powerful tool that can be used to gain access to people one may not have access to on a regular day. This includes not just popular and highly placed people but like-minded people too which is priceless.
Our direction was clear - get investors to fund our idea.
It was strange to me because I was not exposed to such possibilities - "You'll get people to give you money to grow your business?" I had never heard of such before but I believed because I thought the plan was solid. All Wii had were our ideas and savings of about N200, 000. Truth be told, Wii spent more money trying to get funded than Wii did actually launching the business when the funding route did not yield fruit. Wii had spent N150, 000 trying to get funded and N30, 000 to launch our first collection on the 10th of October, 2017.
Our basic solution was to provide quality print and t-shirt production at affordable rates to corporate and individual clients with the aim of reducing the need for middlemen in the market. However, Wii lacked the funds to establish a factory for production. Wii had to plan in phases. Wii launched the first phase of business which involved the creation of collections that connected different communities. Wii released the Christian, Tech and Lagos collections in this phase.
In the first three months, Wii sold ten shirts to family and friends (thank you all). These were dark days but Wii knew there was a market and kept tweaking our strategy. One lesson I learned in our first three months was that social media numbers do not always translate into Naira. Our understanding of the market grew and so did our sales, within the following 4 months Wii sold over a thousand products. Things were beginning to come round in the ninth month but Donald had to leave for personal reasons and then the Creative became the Businessman.
It became dark again, I can even admit that this period was the darkest of my journey so far. I expected hits but back to back bad news was a lot to take in. It felt like I was trying to cross a busy road but I got stuck and was staring at this truck as it got closer. The Q3 and Q4 of 2018 were tough. My gratitude goes to Razaq of Cowrywise who helped me make sense of that season. Many thanks to Odunayo , Ibukun and Josh of PiggyVest for stellar advice concerning business and structure, it really saved me. Learning from mentors and those with more experience would really help your journey.
Although it was not an easy transition for me, I approached 2019 differently. I had a plan and I stuck with it, one of which was to focus on satisfying our current clientele, this propelled us into the second phase of our business plan in 2019. Wii launched our factory and secured a Head of Operations - Seyi Fayemi in the Q1. Wii sold over a thousand products in the same period, over two thousand five hundred by May and grew into a team of five members by the end of Q2. Wii grew our clientele and brand awareness consistently. Wii are working towards selling five thousand products by the end of Q3 as our current average of a hundred products per week increases. Wii have delivered our products to twelve States and have contributed over fifty t-shirts in support of various businesses and movements to show #WiiCare. This week Wii made this announcement and look to keep growing steadily.
As I reflect on the journey so far, I am grateful to every brand and individual that trusted/trusts us with their orders. Thankful to everyone that supports - reposts, refers and recommends us, indeed #WiiAreOne. Shout out to the Love of My Life, I literally couldn’t have gone through this without you.
I draw a lot of fulfillment from the fact that something has been built. Could Wii have done some things better? Definitely!
Have Wii made mistakes? Yes. Would Wii have done some things differently? Yes! Are we focused on improving our products and quality of service? Yes! #WiiGoAgain.
Personally, I am excited about the future and count it a privilege to be leading Wii CREATE. Going into the future, our goal is to keep simplifying our processes and maintaining the quality of our products. This includes integrating tech into our processes, releasing more creative and insightful content while partnering with you to create your stories as Wii Create ours.
What a journey this will be! #WiiMove
