Bumpa Success Stories: How I started my Business with just 10,000 Naira because I wanted to Solve a Problem

Miwa Beauty Store is an online beauty store that sells skincare items. Launched in 2020, their goal is to provide affordable and authentic skincare to their customers and make it easy for them to buy these products here in Nigeria. Ayotomiwa, the founder and CEO of the brand, tells us about how they started by solving a problem, and the hacks they've used to ensure that customers always come back! Visit their website here.

Tell us about yourself.

I'm Wahab Ayotomiwa, the founder of Miwa Beauty Store, an online beauty store that sells the best skincare and body care products.

Skincare and body care products sold by Miwabeauty store

How did you start your business?

I've always been a fan of beauty products, ever since I was a child. I've always loved putting products on my skin and fun fact, I used to try out my mum's products. I also have some skincare issues like acne, and I'm always researching skin and skincare products. But I only launched my business during my NYSC year, because I was living in Ibadan and finding it very difficult to access skincare products from Lagos and other places. I figured other people would likely be having this problem as well and I wanted to solve it, and that's how Miwa Beauty Store was born in 2020.

How did you source your products? What was your budget and how did you expand?

I started very small, majorly because I was using my 'allawee' to fund the business. The exchange rate wasn't as crazy then as it is now, and you could still use your Naira card to shop from international stores. I started with a few items with around 12 pounds, just to try it out.

How did you start getting buyers for your business?

So I started by finding people in Ibadan who needed skincare items but didn't want to go through the hassle of finding them. They would pre-order through my brand, and then I'd import them alongside some extra items which I would then sell off through my social media - WhatsApp and Instagram. I also started running ads when the revenue coming in started to increase.

Happy customers in Ibadan

Amazing. Is this the model you still run the business on?

Not anymore. We've expanded into stocking up on items that people would typically buy. The research helped us figure out the hottest-selling skincare and beauty products, and those are the items we source for and keep in stock now.

Have you hit any major milestones in terms of growth for your business?

We noticed a lot of significant growth from last year. Like, things just started building up slowly from when we launched, but really took off last year.

What would you say was the reason for that?

We started getting a lot more referrals. We're very big on customer service, and always strive to give our customers an unforgettable experience, and it has had an effect on the number of referrals we get, which has seriously increased since last year, and that has then had an effect on the number of orders we've been hitting lately. It also helped that we created a community for our customers.

Customer reviews

What's the highest number of orders you've recorded in recent months?

We did about 2,000 orders in April.

That’s a lot!

It truly is. It was exciting!

A look at Miwabeauty's Bumpa business analytics dashboard for the month of April

How were you able to process this amount of orders in a month without making mistakes?

It's very easy because I use my Bumpa website. Because of the volume of orders we get, or even requests, everyone is advised to shop and check out on the website. It provides a seamless experience for the customer while at the same time making it easier for us to process every single order without missing a thing. In the DMs, it's easy to forget you were processing an order for a customer if you keep getting multiple messages. It's all hard to juggle but that's disappeared with the website, and that's why we're able to handle a huge volume of orders monthly.

Do you plan to expand your business some more, and how?

Oh yes. We're looking into working with aestheticians and even owning and running a spa sometime soon. I'm very in love with what I do, so I definitely will want to expand the business into other areas of it.

What other Bumpa features ease your processes to be faster and easier?

For one, getting a website has really helped. I've been able to have more time on my hands because I don't have to manually process an order, and it's given me time to do other things like create content for the brand, which has been an area we've been lacking in lately.

Miwabeauty's website, www.miwabeautystore.com

I also love the inventory management feature. It's easier to see what's in stock and not, or what's about to run out. I don't have to count my items in inventory one by one anymore. Lastly, it would be the business analytics feature. I get a lot of insightful data on how my business is performing, what's selling fast and where it's selling the fastest, and I even know who my top customers are. These features have made my life as a business owner easier.

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

I was very happy to!

What's your advice for people who are considering starting a business, or have just started one?

Consistency is key. Be consistent; for me for example, it was very hard to kick off my business. But I always went back to the drawing board to look at what was working and what wasn't and then strategised around it. And now even I can say I'm doing well. So be consistent and be focused on the goal. It gets better.

Read our Bumpa Success Stories, a series that features some of the most innovative and successful businesses on Bumpa. Through this series, we're showcasing how our merchants reach new audiences, engage with customers and increase sales. These stories provide real-world examples of how our platform can be a game-changer for businesses of every size and industry, inspiring businesses to try Bumpa for themselves and achieve boosted engagement, increased revenue, and limitless possibilities.

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