Would you start your business if you were to do it all over again? and what would you do differently?
Oh wow! I think I would want to start all over again with the same people because I believe if they were not the people that stood by me I’m not sure my company name ‘Prime Shades’ would be known by anyone. I was very touched yesterday when I was having dinner and two ladies walked up to me here in Lagos and said “Hi, are you the wedding planner from Ghana? I’ve been following you on instagram, I love your work” I was inspired and very surprised because these were two ladies I didn’t know. One went on to tell me that she started following me last year and showed me a current picture of my work that she screenshot. That meant a really big deal to me because I wouldn’t have thought that a floral arrangement I did for a wedding caught someone’s eye in Lagos to the point the person loved it and kept record of it to use when she has her own wedding. She was sincere in telling me that she kept the picture to make sure she shows her decorator what she wanted for hers which was the exact replica of my work. I was like ‘oh wow!’ to serve as an inspiration to someone is a blessing to me. I don’t see it as an overwhelming achievement but rather as a positive feedback that my work positively inspires. She also mentioned ‘Prime Shades Wedding Diaries’ which is a project I started not too long ago, which is about weddings that I have – it’s like a book where you can read about the brides I work for and the details of their wedding; the groom and everything that went down. That’s a brief summary of Prime Shades Wedding Diaries.
Iludio: What is the biggest problem you face as a wedding vendor?
I think the biggest problem I’ve ever faced is a beautiful bride walking up to me to say she loves my work and shows me a few pictures of what she wants where the estimated budget of the wedding can be in the thousands of dollars and she goes ahead to offer an insufficient amount/budget to pull off some kind of magic. It is so difficult and when I try to explain, it is difficult. I always have to give a total breakdown from the cost of the chairs for the guests to the luxury chairs to the lighting to the table labeling to the figure items to the, you know, chargers, napkins, napkin rings – the details. I always make sure I give the clients the details. The details will now make sense to the bride that “o wow! all I’m seeing ain’t cheap”..that is one of my greatest challenge.
Another challenge is having interference from both families; where the bride’s family comes and says we want our guests facing this direction, we want a different entrance and exit then the other family comes and tells you ’NO! we want you to position them this way’. It happens often. it’s so challenging because you’re torn between two families. Also another challenge, is when you meet a couple who don’t communicate. It happens when everything is usually done by the bride and the groom is all quiet and when you’re done the groom is like “I wish you would do it this way” when the bride is not present. Then you realize you have to do some extra work to balance and dilute the situation to please both parties and you find that it is quite difficult to achieve.
What has been your greatest motivation?
I think my greatest motivation has been the feedback I get and the references I get from people – clients giving me referral. I think in all my work I am grateful to God because I have gotten jobs from one referral to the next without putting in so much effort to scout for projects/brides/jobs. After using Instagram platform to post my work (I’m not on Facebook), having launched my webpage quite recently, I realized that Instagram has also been a major source of projects alongside the referrals given me by clients. The referrals have been a great motivation, inspiring me to keep at it. I keep in mind that people are watching and feel happy that I have come this far and would want to see me grow and I in turn want to grow with them.
