For her, it was fun and a hobby at the time she started, leaving the office by 6pm, wading through the heavy traffic from Ikoyi to the workshop at Ajah so she could supervise the tailors and do printing sometimes up till 1,2am, but then the business started growing and she had to permanently bond with it.

From being a practicing lawyer for about 6 years to setting up MMABON’ CUSTOM CLOTHIER, It has been passion and creativity at work for Elizabeth Idem-Ido.

MMABON’ Nigeria’s fastest growing custom clothiers clothing line. Established in 2009 from a part-time t-shirt printing hobby, MMABON’ Clothing Limited is into the design, production and marketing of custom apparel (T-shirts and other lifestyle clothing products for women, men and children).

MMABON’ Clothing is divided into two distinct product ranges – wholesale custom clothing and the retail line. Striving to set international quality standards in the Nigerian apparel production industry, MMABON designs are tailored to ensure customer appeal, functionality and compliance to specific customer brand image.

About Mmabon’?

We do custom branded T-shirts for families, events, schools etc. We have a ready-to-wear casual apparel line and various seasonal collections.  Our main stay; branded T-shirts, school uniforms, casual apparels and anything casual.

How And When Mmabon’ started?

In 2009 I thought there was something else I could do aside going to court and writing agreement. I always had a flair for design, I sketch, I draw and the only way I could interpret that was through custom T-shirts.  Initially, it was more of people buying a blank T-shirt, ordering what was to be printed on them and I’ll design them. For me it was fun and a hobby at that time but then it started growing.  From my friends and their friends, I literarily learnt how to design and print. It was just me alone in my small studio in my BQ and then I advertised on Facebook. For some reason in December that year I had no less than 200 T-shirts designed by myself. That was all I was interested in.

People started asking me to make T-shirts from scratch, but I was interested in just printing and they literarily pushed me. I remember going to Egypt to buy some fabrics because I wasn’t satisfied with what I saw at the local market at that time.

In 2010, I found some lady in Lekki Phase 1 who does T-shirts and uniforms, so she started making them for me.  I’ll buy the fabric, give her the design, pick up when it is ready and then print myself.  After a while she said my work was too much for her and advised me to go learn how to sew. I felt if I get someone to produce a T-shirt for me then it’s fine, my interest was in designing and printing not sewing.

She insisted that the designs were too irregular as opposed to what she was used to and it disrupted her workflow.  So I got machines and two tailors then I would buy patterns from her and my tailors would sew.  Later on she said her husband discouraged it.  I and my two tailors were stuck, and then I got my husband’s Ralph Lauren T-shirt, collected T-shirts from other people, ripped them apart to make patterns out of them.

I also got some tailors from Ghana; I had to explain to them what I wanted. My head tailor has spent 6 years with me, he has literally gone on this journey with me and so far we have had no issues quality wise.  It was more like a trial and error thing but we got it right. The only time I had with them was after work in the evening because I was still working as a lawyer. I got a 3 bedroom accommodation for them in Ajah and they worked in the living room.  So by 6pm I would leave the office at Ikoyi, head straight to Ajah, wading through the heavy traffic, so I can print on the shirts they have made.

I would stay up till 1am or 2am sometimes because the work had to be done. Later on I got a manager who knew how to print, so I would just go there after work to supervise, but then it was stressful. In 2012, I finally took time off my job at the law firm so I could concentrate on Mmabon’. I basically decided I had to bond with them for like a month, so we got a place at Ikate, my family stayed upstairs while the tailors were downstairs, sales grew that month and I couldn’t go back to work and I never went back.

How does the business operate?

We have an office in Lekki, with (4) tailors, (1) assistant, (3) graphic artists and (1) admin person.  You can come in buy your T-shirt, request for the printing you want on it and in 30 minutes it is ready. Roughly we do about 100 shirts every day, capacity wise, it’s not good enough for me but then I don’t want to overwork my staff or get too much staff now. I would like to scale but 100 is our sustaining number for now.

Customers order by walk-in, 85% of our customers don’t walk in; we get our orders by email, telephone, bbm, whatsapp. We share pictures online so people can pick the particular design they want.

Once the order is settled, the customer makes payment. We take upfront payment. Most people pay ahead as well.  Next, we do a list (market list for the tailor to buy the fabric), after this the admin person will raise a work order for design, production due date, print that will be on them and the tailor starts work.

The tailors have a work order in their workshop and they have to follow it. It contains the sizes they are going to cut and quantity per size to cut.

Each tailor has a unique function based on their strength. A T-shirt is simple but detailed. When they are done they pass it to the graphic guys who do the printing (having prepared the designs they will use). There is a due date for everyone so it must be ready a day before collection or delivery. We have normal and urgent orders; we charge a little bit more for the urgent orders.  Most of our customers fall in the category of urgent small orders and we always meet up.  The smaller jobs actually bring the bigger jobs. Customer satisfaction is key, beyond the T-shirt; the bottom line is to create an impression. I tell my workers to have the customer mindset, not being able to sleep until a job is done, and we stay up till 12am sometimes.  We deliver nationwide.  We do T-shirts for the Calabar carnival also.

How did you get funds to start? I started with N500 thousand naira, my personal savings which I used to buy the basic machines.

Goals/vision of the business….

Exceeding customer expectation. To be the one stop shop for custom T-shirts in Nigeria and West Africa.  To be the one stop brand for quality custom T-shirts.

How can one start this business?

A lot of interest and passion is required depending on the route you want to take. Some people just want to make custom shirts, others just want to print. It depends on your area of interest. Go for trainings on how to use the embroidery machines, heat press machines, direct to garment machines. You could do internships too to acquire necessary skills.

If you have passion for T-shirts, you can find a way around it. We support people starting their T-shirt brands, they bring their fabrics to us and outsource all the production to us and we do it.

Challenges in the business…

Quality control and getting proper staff to align with my quality control policies.

Sometimes I get messages about orders and T-shirts in the middle of the night also.

It has been a learning experience for me. I didn’t grow as fast as I wanted because of my family.

Opportunities…

Literally everyone owns a T-shirt and we all love T-shirts. Most people have some sentiments attached to T-shirts; it could be a reunion, group gig etc. There is a huge market for custom T-shirts. The market is huge and big and I don’t think it has been explored enough.

You can actually create a demand, before now it was not too common to see people wear T-shirts for birthdays, naming ceremonies, pre-wedding shoot aside the basic business and events that need T-shirts for branding.  There is another market altogether for T-shirts (people want to wear T-shirts for fun).

How do you pay your staff?

Salaries are paid from revenue generated. The orders pay the bills and so far they have. I’m working on scaling and increasing our capacity.

Marketing strategies you use…

We use social media platforms to showcase our products because that is how we started. Our Facebook page is the strongest. We pay physical visits to schools, we do email marketing targeted at schools and businesses. For schools, we do a sample with the school logo and then show it to them. We also have referrals; this business is sustained from referrals.

The best piece of advice you have ever gotten?

You can make your business anything you want it to be. It is up to you to make it small, big or bigger. That advice has worked for me. I find that every time I want to increase my revenue and I take some active steps, it happens.

Inspiration…

Whatever is trending inspires me.  Also everything around me inspires me.

Future plans of Mmabon’…

We plan to register a stronger online presence even as we make effort to capture the Nigerian market and expand to West Africa hopefully.

Given the chance to start again, what would you do differently?

I would get proper funding. I am where I am because I took it quite slowly. I would concentrate fully on this and go all out to do it on scale that I want. I would be more focused.

PHOTO SOURCE: http://mmabon.myshopify.com/

 

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