Friend, Welcome to ONR! Your new Business Bestie
Welcome, friend, to ONR. 🎉😊
Before I start talking (or instead typing *hehe*), we realised that we roped you into our ecosystem without formally introducing ourselves to you – My bad, it was the excitement! 🤭
Firstly, thank you for being here. You are on the right track, so stay on.
I bet you know nothing or very little about ONR and Olive, the founder, but today, we will change that. This blog post will highlight ONR and the world of Importing.
(Ps. I am the one who’s writing, so hi there; it’s a pleasure to meet you in the emails finally. I hope you love it here!)
Anyway, where were we? Introduction.
I don’t know about you, but introductions give me the heebie-jeebies, but here goes nothing. 🤭
My name is Olive Nkirote. (Here is a picture!)
I am the founder of ONR. ONR is a platform and space that aims to rebrand the youth in Africa through knowledge of business and investing.
Our 3 focal points are to inspire, inform and interact with our audience, community and clients.
ONR started as a YouTube channel back in 2018. When I began trailblazing this journey, I wanted to be a business owner, build a company, and be an entrepreneur. (Hapa ni wapi? Insert that funny TikTok audio.)
(A screenshot of where it all began!)
I came into the online space looking for a space to learn about building a business and making Money and quickly realised that only some people dare I say, no one, actually shared the truth of the beginning and how to get started.
Everyone shared the glory, the Money already made, and the wins and accolades. No one was sharing the how, the where, and the what. So, I challenged myself to do so, and here we are today!
Check out our YouTube channel – ONR.
In a nutshell, that’s who Olive is and what ONR does.
Now, I know you are here, particularly for Alibaba. How did I get into the world of shipping, importing and Alibaba?
Storytime (Drink some water, then let’s continue!)
In the fateful year of 2020, I started a business selling bags. I had just graduated in 2018 and knew I needed to do something to make Money.
I was creating content on YouTube (like I mentioned earlier), but YouTube had yet to pay me anything. So, as I worked tirelessly to monetise and grow my YouTube channel in 2019 and 2020, COVID-19 stemmed in.
That year was not my finest year. I was broke; the country was on lockdown, so I needed to start selling something to survive the downtime.
I knew shipping stuff from China was my best bet to make good profits. (Buy low from China + Sell high in Kenya = Money in my pockets!)
That’s what I did.
I took it upon myself to research a bit, ask friends who were shipping already, and make my 1st shipment. This was August 2020. How do I remember?
Well, I created a YouTube video narrating my horrible but fruitful experience, and to this day, that video is the 2nd most popular video on our channel.
Watch the video here.
Now, I know you are waiting to know how it went. Well, not so good. I quickly realized that ‘selling bags’ wasn’t my thing. Also, I made the mistake of stocking up on bags based on my likes and preferences rather than the markets.
One mistake many newbie importers make is not doing product research based on their target market’s needs, preferences and ability to purchase, a.k.a purchasing power.
I had invested in a Wix website and opened an Instagram page – Tesorolly – Ps. It still exists, and printed packaging bags in Downtown (I still have about 30 in my closet eating up dust).
I ended up shutting the business down 2 months after launching. To make the wound even more unbearable, I launched this business on my birthday, November 6th 2020. I am not forgetting this anytime soon.
What happened to the stock? I sold some of the bags, gifted my friends during their birthdays and gifted myself the remaining pieces.
I learned a lot from this experience. This expensive lesson made me a better planner, researcher and businesswoman.
Well, it didn’t deter me or stop me. If it did, well, you wouldn’t be here today, so clearly, I manoeuvred through the rough terrain and soared through but with another business – Farming!
Farming? Yes indeed. My partner and I decided to be farmers, and little did I know that the lessons I had acquired trying to set up Tesorolly would eventually manifest and be my guiding light in this new phase.
Because of this new business venture, I honed my Importing skills. With no budget to fly to China, a lack of quality locally-made goods for our farm and a will to make it work – Alibaba became my best friend.
Now, I want to stop here because I could go on and on, and we could be here for another few pages.
Are you learning something? I genuinely hope so.
But before you leave, I want you to stay tuned for 1 to 2 emails every week. Possibly, every Tuesday and Thursday of each week in August, you should receive an email, a.k.a. a love letter from ONR.
In the upcoming emails, you’ll learn much more about Alibaba – my experience Importing and starting an e-commerce business; therefore, always be on the lookout for them.
And with that,
I want to leave you, but not empty-handed, with a lesson of the day.
Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
Will challenges be there? Yes. Uncertainties, Yes? But without them, without the bold decision to risk and make a choice to start, there would be no success.
Talk to you soon,
Olive.
Tag:Welcome to ONR
