Poised Corp in a quick chat with fast rising fashion designer Kola Qudus

PC:                 How did you become a Fashion designer?

Qudus:          Basically I started my journey into fashion in 2003. I started out as a personal shopper. I shop for people, I help them buy clothes and I style them, so that was how I started my journey into fashion.

Then going forward I decided to start my own line of fashion because I had particular way I wanted people to dress.

I went to Noble Afrique.

After my training I did training at Noble Afrique during my School holidays at NYSC as I was posted to a school. Then after I went to London College of fashion where did fashion designer and production. I went to Coty University I did sales management. Then I went to Central St. Martines where I learnt personal styling.

PC:                 You went when?

Qudus:          I went 2006 and I came back 2007 December.

PC:                 When did you decide to launch fully as a fashion entrepreneur?

Qudus:          like I said I was in the business of fashion since 2003 so taking it a step further in 2006 I already had an idea of what I wanted to do so that was why I went for trainings to empower myself more, know more about the industry and learn more skills.

So I set up my company and we started operating fully in February 13^th, 2008.

PC:                 How old were you then?

Qudus:          I think I was 26 then.

PC:                 What was the challenge in starting up then?

Qudus:          Basically like every other business finance is always a problem. I will say I was a bit privileged I got support from family, friends and old clients that believed when I told them I needed to set up my own space because of my prior dealings with them.

PC:                 Dealings?

Qudus:          Like I said in 2003 I was still in school but I was selling to people, students, working with people.

                          So when I came back in 2007 this are the people I went to that I wanted to start my own and they said no wahala.

PC:                 What lesson did you learn that made you venture straight into entrepreneurship?

Qudus:          Yes then when I finished school. The norm was everybody leaves school and go working in the bank. Everybody then was working in a bank so it was seemingly obvious I was going to work in a bank too but I find out that I was enjoying fashion it wasn’t something I was going to rack my head and I was making little earnings for myself.

So by the time I finished school fashion had already taken over me because I had people calling me over, my hands was full as a student, as a youth corps member even when I travelled to London. I had people calling me to tell me that they have not made clothes since I travelled because they have been waiting for me to come back. So all this gave me motivation and my hands was full so I couldn’t see beyond fashion so if you tell me bank its like taking me out of what I know about onto an unknown world.

PC:                 What are the major shows you have participated in?

Qudus:          To be honest with you I think have done all the major fashion shows in Nigeria.

                        I have done Arise Fashion Show, GTB Lagos Fashion, Debur Week, ECOWAS Fashion Show, Lagos Style week. I am not sure there is any major Nigerian Fashion show that I have not done yet.

PC:                 What brand is Kola Qudus?

Qudus:          Kola Qudus is an affordable premium brand. We are not cheap and we are not expensive at the same time.

PC:                 You mentioned your trainings in fashion, why did you also go into sales management training?

Qudus:          The way I understand business for you to succeed in whatever business I believe all is a function of sales. My background is philosophy which I studied in University of Lagos (Unilag) then I went into fashion. I realized I didn’t have any form of management skills or entrepreneurship skills so I had to take sales training. I also went to Lagos Business School and did a programme: Certificate in Entrepreneurship Management sponsored by Diamond. About 3000 applicants for the programme and I was among the 50 chosen to be trained and the best 5 was picked which I was luckily among and we won N3m grant each in 2012.

PC:                 Waoh

PC:                 So Lekki outlet was opened on 31/08/2015 Sunday making how many outlets of Qudus?

Qudus:          The factory is located in Ikeja where we started over 7 years ago, we have the Surulere Store, the Lekki store is in Admiralty way.

We have a partnership with Twice as nice and we have presence in 12 of their stores across Nigeria: Abuja, Enugu, Warri and Kwara.

PC:                 What is the partnership about?

Qudus:          For every Twice as Nice Store you go, you find our clothes there.

PC:                 At the same price with your store?

Qudus:          Yes

PC:                 Tell us about your family

Qudus:          I grew up in a family of 5 siblings, I had 3 brothers and a sister I’m the 3^rd born my father was a civil servant and my mother was a trader.

PC:                 Who was your greatest influence then?

Qudus:          My father is a disciplinarian, my mother is a trader and she is very strict as well so whatever I become is a mixture of the two of my parents.

PC:                 Your advice for youths wanting to startup ... in fashion or other business.

Qudus           My advice for people looking to starting up is to go through a process of learning and learning so when they start up they don’t make a lot of mistakes.

PC                   Thank you for sharing, I’m sure our readers will find this inspiring?

Qudus           We hope so! Thank u.